June tips from El Paso Master Gardeners. Have a question? Call their hotline at 566-1276 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. most weekdays. If a Master Gardener is not available when you call, leave a message, and your call will be returned as soon as possible.

There is still time to plant heat-tolerant summer annuals. Just be sure to water transplants as needed until roots become established.

Remove faded flowers from plants before they set seed; this will encourage them to continue flowering.

Frequent mowing (every four to five days) is best for your grass and helps to reduce weeds by preventing seed heads from forming.

A light application of fertilizer every four to six weeks will help keep annual flowers healthy and blooming.

Gardening workshops

El Paso Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a series of free “Gardening 101” workshops. The next, “Integrated Pest Management: Common Garden Insects,” will be from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Multipurpose Recreation Center (Dance Room), 9031 Viscount.

The focus will be on the basics of home gardening in the El Paso region with Denise Rodriguez, Texas AM AgriLife Extension horticulturist, and members of the El Paso County Master Gardeners.

No previous gardening experience is necessary to attend. Workshops are suitable for new or experienced gardeners. Other workshops:

“Plant Propagation,” 4-5:30 p.m. July 12.

“Getting Ready for Fall Gardening,” 4-5:30 p.m. Sept. 13.

An RSVP is required for each workshop. Seating is limited to the first 30 participants. Registration deadline for the next workshop is Wednesday.

Information: Register by calling Marci Tuck at 541-4020 or email tuckmj@elpasotexas.gov.

‘SunScape’ class

Water conservation is important in the desert Southwest, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a beautiful garden. Learn how to garden with gorgeous native plants and find out which plants work best for your space at the annual “SunScape: Gardening the Sensible Way” workshop. The all-day class will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. June 22 at the UTEP Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens. Area professionals, including botanical curator John White and Oscar Mestas, a West Texas regional forester with the Texas Forest Service, will lead the workshop.

The cost is $25. It’s limited to the first 25 participants.

Information: To register, call the museum at 747-8994.

YOUNGSTOWN

Nearly everyone who discovers an oil leak under their car will try to get the problem rectified as quickly as possible.

But what happens if the oil is left on the driveway or in the parking lot? Phillip Boran can tell you.

“The smaller things we don’t think about affects our lives,” said Boran, a Youngstown State University chemistry major. “Hopefully kids can see this as a good opportunity for what they can do to prevent more pollution.”

Boran was referring to a three-dimensional model depicting hypothetical farmland, urban and rural settings onto which he applied food coloring and sprayed water to show how motor oil and other products can mix with runoff water. The result?: Pollutants deposited in lakes, streams and rivers.

Boran’s demonstration was part of Saturday’s Friends of the Mahoning River’s second annual Mahoning Riverfest gathering at the BO Station Banquet Hall, 530 Mahoning Ave., downtown.

The four-hour event was to showcase the Mahoning River and promote more environmentally friendly and green practices, organizers said. Its main sponsor was Vallourec Star (formerly VM Star).

Many people who don’t remember the vibrant steel mills that once lined the Mahoning River received visual reminders, thanks to Nancy Brundage, the Audubon Society of the Mahoning Valley’s vice president.

Brundage found collages of photographs showing the river during the 19th and 20th centuries. Several taken in the 1950s and 1960s show a network of smokestacks and mills paralleling the river.

She also had on hand tips for attracting bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators to people’s gardens.

Another part of the festivities was a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the restoration a few weeks ago of a ramp and 52-foot dock, which will be used for kayaks and canoes on the Mahoning River.

To read more on the event and see photos, see Sunday’s Vindicator or Vindy.com.

Posted: Friday, June 7, 2013 11:29 am

Gardening Tips: Many perennials to choose from for your garden

By Matthew Stevens

RR Daily Herald

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0 comments

June is Perennial Gardening Month in the United States.

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Friday, June 7, 2013 11:29 am.

Pest Patrol Duty is Back

Now is the time to be vigilant about the pest in our gardens. With the recent rains and cooler weather and now warming up we have quite a collection of pest attacking our gardens from all sides. We have the Fire Ants, Mosquitoes, chiggers, ticks, aphids, and a multitude of spiders and other creepy crawling critters. So lets attack these little pests one on one.

Mosquitoes

Boy are the mosquitoes out in force. This is part of being blessed by all that rain we have been enjoying. Now that mosquitoes are here let us protect ourselves from these flying little pest. On page 84 of my book “Gardening in the Texas Hill Country”, I have the solution.

First and the easiest is the white ceramic dish, water and Liquid Lemon Joy mosquito trap. This is really effective. However, please place the dish in an area away from where you are going to be, as this solution will attract the mosquitoes to it and therefore you if you sit next to it. So place the dish with the solution in it in another location some 25 to 50 feet away from the area where you will be. Fill a white ceramic dish with water adding several drops of Lemon Joy dishwashing soap and mix together. Mosquitoes will be attracted to it a drink the mixture. When they drink the solution they will die within fifteen feet of the dish. This solution is not harmful to pets or children. Is that cool or what, now you can enjoy being outside once again.

Fire Ants

One of the good things about a drought was there were no Fire Ants in our yards or gardens, now we that we have had some nice rains and the Fire Ants are back. There are some easy and effective ways to control them.

One of the best ways to control the Fire Ants in the yard and gardens is to apply Beneficial Nematodes. These little, they are microscopic, guys are called the “Marines” of their world.

They seek, kill, and destroy their enemies, and their enemies are Fire Ants, chiggers, and fleas. The difference in these guys and other solutions such as baits is that they go wherever the Fire Ants go, as they are after their food source. These Beneficial Nematodes are found in the garden centers, feed stores, or nurseries. Look for them in the refrigerators or ask the folks at the centers where they keep them. Instructions as to how to apply are on the box or the containers they come in.

Bugs in General

This recipe came from Sharon Cuyler who sent in to “Organic Gardening” this effective and inexpensive solution to our bugs in the garden. Sharon uses it effectively on ants, potato bugs, white flies and she says it even works on bugs she doesn’t know the names of.

The formula is simple, and approximate: 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons of witch hazel, and 2 drops of liquid dish soap. She puts it in a spray bottle and uses it on everything, and it is safe for vegetables. She also sprays it around her house. Shelli Rosamond of Marble Falls, has been testing it as well, and says it is working for her. This is something that I have been looking for a very long time a solution to the bug control problem that is effective, inexpensive and easy to apply.

Aphids

Last year we had an abundance of Aphids attacking our plants and trees, as there was a shortage of Lady Bugs in the area to get control of the aphids. Last year the aphids were so bad that my Meyers lemon tree and my avocado trees were covered up and then there came the black residue from the infestation. Both of those trees were in serious trouble. No lemons were had and no avocadoes either. I used insecticidal soaps and pure water and some other products but to no avail. Two weeks ago, I was listening to John Dromgoole, of The Natural Gardener in Austin, on the radio and he had a caller with the same problem I had. John told his caller about a product called Serenade. I immediately bought some and tried it. Wow! One application and my trees are already responding in a very positive way. Many thanks John. This product is good for any fungus that attacks our gardens.

Remember: We have had a very unusual Spring even for the Texas Hill Country, and we have to be patient as the plants are just as confused as we are.

Till Next Month!

Keep your souls and your soles in your garden!

Remember the True Master Gardener: Jesus said, “I am the vine; my Father is the Gardener.” John 15:1

Have questions or comments? Contact Bill Luedecke at The Luedecke Group Realtors, P.O. Box 1632, Bertram, TX. 78605 (no Post Office in Oatmeal) or email bill@texasland.net. For additional gardening web sites, go to his web site; www.TexasLand.Net and click on links.

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This could be the year you grow the tomatoes you use to make your BLT. And that will likely be the best BLT you ever eat, knowing that juicy tomato was plucked from your backyard garden just minutes before you laid it on a bed of lettuce and topped it with bacon.

Or why not grow a bodaciously big sunflower that will impress the heck out of the kids. You can do it. You just need a little guidance.

So Jodie Visker, woman of many gardening projects at the Onalaska schools, and Onalaska master gardener Marilyn Rebarchek have gathered their resources and are sharing their knowledge about what you need to get off the couch and out to the garden.

First, you need a plan.

How big will your garden be and what do you want to grow? If it’s vegetables, you need at least six hours of sun, so monitor your yard and figure out how much sun you get.

Many perennials and annuals need sun, too, so read plant tags before your load up a cart at the garden center. Those plant tags are important because they’ll tell you a lot about what the plants need — how much sun, how much water, how much space. Also, it should list how tall and how wide the plant will grow.

Let’s get started:

• You should begin where your plants begin — in the soil. If you don’t have good soil, you won’t grow good plants. Rebarchek recommends amending with compost, which can improve any kind of soil.
  If you don’t have your own compost pile — and you should — then you can get free compost from the yard waste site at Isle La Plume. Just bring a bucket and a shovel. But plan on starting your own pile in your own yard as soon as you start gardening. It’s ecological and your plants will thank you. It’s like Mother Nature on organic steroids.
  To learn more about how to do it and why you should do it, go to www.composting101.com. And if you’d like a soil test, contact your local extension office. In La Crosse County, that’s 785-9593.
• Visker recommends starting with “All New Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew. It tells you how to get the highest yield from the smallest amount of space. “People start big and take up a lot of space,” she said. “That book is all about gardening in the least amount of space for the least amount of work.”
• If you don’t read that, read something else, said Rebarchek. “Do your research.” If tomatoes are your passion, look that up on the Internet and study how to grow that plant well and what type of tomato you want to plant. Tomato lovers can learn most of what they need to know by going to gardening.about .com/od/growingtips/tp/Tomato_Tips.htm
• Visker also recommends starting small with a flower or vegetable garden so you don’t get discouraged by the weeding and watering.
  “If you want to start with seeds, zinnias are a really good choice. They don’t need real fertile soil and they’re vigorous growers. And for shade, coleus is really easy and provide a lot of color. For perennials, Russian sage is foolproof and drought tolerant. So is sedum Autumn Joy and the good old daylily.”
• If you’re looking for success in the vegetable garden, Visker recommends beans.
  “Green beans are good and bush beans that don’t need any support are easy.”
  And if you’re going to grow tomatoes, Visker added, “make sure you have enough space for them and support for them.”
• Watering is where many people go wrong. Your plants need an inch of water a week. So if it’s not falling from the sky, you have to supply it, Visker said.
• If you don’t have much space or only want to garden a little, try container gardening. It cuts down on weeding. But Visker said you have to be more vigilant about watering.
• The easiest starting place, especially for cooks, is probably herbs, Visker said.
  “I really like to grow oregano. It is very easy, very common and a well used herb and that’s a perennial. It will come back three times as big. That’s really great and really low maintenance.”
  Another easy one, she said, is basil, which is an annual so you’ll have to plant it every year.
  “Sometimes I will put sage and thyme in my flower pots, then it’s convenient,” she said, if she wants to step out the kitchen door and snip some for cooking.
  Another plus, most herbs don’t require quite as much sun as vegetables.
  And except for basil, most of them don’t require really good soil, either. “Most of the herbs are fairly drought tolerant. It’s crazy not to grow them. It’s very money saving.”
  West Virginia University Extension has a handy online guide that explains about growing herbs. It allows you to click on an herb, such as basil or oregano, to learn what to do for that herb. Go to www .wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/herbs/ne208hrb.htm
• Don’t forget the shrubs. Rebarchek said they can provide great structure in the garden and once they are planted and established, they don’t require as much care as perennials, annuals and vegetables.
• Consider the daylily. Rebarchek said Happy Returns and stella d’oro are among the most reliable, but if you don’t like yellow, find a daylily you do like.
  “The problem is, the deer will eat those,” she said, so she no longer plants them. But if deer aren’t a problem for you, invest in daylilies.
• If you’re looking for something that doesn’t appeal to deer, Rebarchek recommends ornamental grasses. They come in a variety of sizes and growing habits. But if you’re living in deer country, skip arbor vitae. “You don’t dare plant arbor vitae around here. And any of the Asiatic or daylilies, those are like candy to deer. But, an alternative is any of the iris. Bunny rabbits and deer do not eat any of the iris.”
• Plant your food among the flowers. If you plant something with a big, ornamental leaf like rhubarb, you can be harvesting for rhubarb pie while the leaves interact with finer foliage plants like zagreb coreopsis. “Rhubarb is a beautiful ornamental,” Rebarchek said. You should be aware of foliage, she said, because that sticks around a lot longer than the flowers do.
• And lastly, plant some bulbs. If you’ve been impressed by all the tulips, daffodils, squill and hyacinths blooming in your neighbors’ yards, you’ll want to plant bulbs this fall for bloom next spring. “I would recommend daffodils because deer don’t eat them,” Rebarchek said.

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There is still time to plant heat-tolerant summer annuals.  Just be sure to water transplants as needed until roots become established.

Remove faded flowers from plants before they set seed—this will encourage them to continue flowering.

Frequent mowing (every four to five days) is best for your grass and helps to reduce weeds by preventing seed heads from forming. 

A light application of fertilizer every four to six weeks will help keep annual flowers healthy and blooming.

Treat pecans with a spray application of zinc and a soil application of nitrogen.  Irrigate your trees regularly to help improve their overall health and provide adequate nutrition for nut production.

Check for insects and diseases on plants, trees, and shrubs.  Spider mites may become troublesome now that the weather is warming up.  Be very careful if applying any pesticides—application during warm weather can lead to chemical burns on the leaves of your plants. 

June is a great time to select day lily varieties as they reach their peak of bloom—you are able to see the colors of the blooms and make your selections more wisely.

Continue to spray roses for black spot and insects.  Funginex, Rose Defense, Daconil, and Captan are suitable fungicides for treatment of black spot.  

Look for problems on tomatoes.  Blossom-end rot appears as a sunken brown spot on the bottom of the tomato.  This is caused from irregular watering.  Mulch plants and keep them moist to help prevent this problem.  Early blight—plants have yellow blotches or dark circular spots with concentric markings.  Spots occur on lower leaves first.  Apply an approved fungicide at seven to ten day intervals.  Curly-top—Leaves curl and cup upward and turn light green to yellow with purple veins on the lower sides.  Remove infected plants from the garden and destroy them to keep from infecting other plants in your garden.

Water lawns and gardens thoroughly but not too frequently.  Soak to a depth of about six inches.  Watering in the early morning or late evening will help to eliminate problems with evaporation due to high winds. 

Conserve moisture in the soil around plants by mulching.  Apply three to six inches of mulch, depending on the material used—coarser materials will need to be deeper than finer ones. 

If moving houseplants outdoors for the summer, be careful not to place them into direct sunlight—they are no longer accustomed to such intense light and plant leaves can be severely burned. 

By Carol Stocker
The Garden Club of America is helping to fund a 3300 square foot native shrub garden which will be planted June 2 at the Trailside Museum in Milton by the Milton Garden Club.

The New England Wild Flower Society grew the trees and shrubs and made a selection based on native plants found in New England woods, that create food and habitat for birds. If you are interested in doing this kind of planting yourself, here’s their list:

Amelanchier canadensis, shadblow tree, two, berries, 25×15.

Aronia arbutifolia, two, berries 6×6 (suckers)

Aronia melancarpa, two, berries 4×6 (suckers)

Cercis candensis var candensis, redbud, two, 25 x 25

Clethra ainifolia Hummingbird, 3×5

Cornus florida Heritage, a GCA anthracnose resistant selection.

Hamamelis virginiana, suckers, likes a moist spot, 15 x 2

Hydrangea arborescens Annabell, wants shade, 4×6 (from Missouri)

Ilex glabra Compacta, five, moisture, evergreen, 4×5

Ilex verticillata, Southern Gentleman, pollinator male, 9×9

Ilex verticillatam Winter Red, three females, bright red berries, 7×7

Kalmia angustifolia Kennebago, sheep laurel, moist, likes peatmoss, 2×4

Kalmia latifolia Carousel, two, mountain laurel, evergreen, likes moisture and rocks, 10×10

Salix discolor, pussy willow, catkins in late winter, suckers, 10×15

Sanbucus candensus, three,berries, including one dark leaved, 9×9

Viburnum acerifolium, suckers, two, berries, 5×5

Vaccinium corymbosum, highbush blueberry, berries, seven, two kinds for cross pollination, 7×7

Viburnum dentatum, straight branches used for Indian arrows, hence the name arrowwood, two, berries, 8×10

Don’t have 3300 square feet? Proven Winners, the company that has introduced so many high performance annual flowers for containers, has been expanding into shrubs bred for compactness for backyard gardens.

They are introducing two new varieties of Arrowwood Viburnums that only grow to 5X5, called “All That Glitters” and “All That Glows.” The reason for two different varieties is so they can cross pollinate and produce loads of the gorgeous blue berries that are so popular with birds. This is a great way to attract birds to your yard in a small space and would make an ecologically sound foundation planting. And they are deer resistant.

To clear up any confusion, these are not our native New England arrowwood, V. dentatnum, but a south eastern plant called limerock arrowwood, or V. baracteatum. But it is cold hardy here, and is endangered in the wild. And it seems to do ok in our acid soil, too.

Other new shrubs being introduced these years by Proven Winners includes a yellow needled minature arborvitae, Filip’s Magic Moment, which could substitute for Dwarf Alberta Spruce if you have a couple of yours that have outgrown their containers. There is also a new Spirea (yawn!) called Glow Girl with lime foliage that is 4×4, which still seems too big for me – I’d like to see a really small one. And of course PW has a new version of the ever popular blue reblooming Hydrangea Macrophylla. Let’s Dance Blue Rhapsody blooms amethyst blue and stays small enough for gardens (3×3).

Gardening Tip of the Week- 1st June

01/06/2013 , 9:19 AM by Peter Riley

Our gardening expert, John Gabriele, has given us some great tips for the cold winter months.

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