By Claryssa J. Medina, Somervell County Master Gardener Intern

 

 

If you’re out and about these days, no doubt you have seen a sign at lawn and garden departments that says “Time for Pre-Emergent’. If you are a diligent turfgrass advocate, you probably already know the time is indeed upon us. What you may not know is that all pre-emergents are not created equal. Choosing the right pre-emergent is important for the continued beauty and health of your lawn.
The purpose of a pre-emergent is to prevent the germination of weed seeds. An application in spring and fall is ideal.

Apply in early September for winter annual weed control. The targeted weeds for this fall application are the ones that will be growing rampantly in the late winter and spring.

While it is somewhat less important in spring, when choosing a pre-emergent for fall you will want to choose a granular herbicide that has no nitrogen and apply with a spreader. Apply in early September for winter annual weed control.

Why no nitrogen? Especially in the fall, the risks of increasing nitrogen are:
1. It extends the mowing season and increases clippings;
2. You will gain shoot growth over root growth;
3. It will deplete stored energy in your turfgrass;
4. Possible fertilizer burn;
5. It encourages annual winter weed growth; and
6. Increased liklihood of disease.

Another note of caution is not to choose a slow release fertilizer near the end of the growing season, when turfgrasses are on the verge of dormancy.
Don’t forget – the goal is uniform coverage and water it to activate it.
With proper management and preparing the ideal turfgrass environment, you’ll be on your way to getting the “yard of the month” award!
May all your gardens be green!

Resource: Texas Master Gardener Handbook

By Claryssa J. Medina, Somervell County Master Gardener Intern

 

With temperatures still in the upper 80s & 90s, it can be hard to turn our attention to Autumn. But rest assured, the days will gradually start getting longer, and the temperatures will gradually get cooler (or at least less hot, right?).
Knowing that fall is around the corner, we can start thinking about fall gardening. Just a few of the fall gardening benefits: more rain, fewer insects, frost tolerant plants, and better flavor in your veggies. Many cool-season crops can actually withstand some cold. In fact, their flavor may even be enhanced after a frost.
Timely planting is the key to a successful fall garden. To determine when to plan a paticular vegetable for the latest harvest, consider the average date of the first killing frost and the number of days to maturity for the particular crop variety. Using lettuce as our example, you would plant 10-14 weeks before the average fall-freeze date, harvesting 40-85 days after planting.
If you’re less in the mood or fall planting, fall and winter offers an excellent chance to clean up and amend your beds in preparation for the next spring planting season. By spreading compost and other wastes on the soil, you will add nutrients to the soil for next year’s crops. The beneficial insects and microorganisms in the compost will help integrate the compost with the soil, and the added humus will improve the soil structure. Leaves are also abundant, and non-gardening neighbors are usually glad to give away their leaves. This provides a win-win for the gardener the non-gardener, and the leaves, as they get recycled back into the ground to provide an amendment to the soil.
Whichever you choose, gardening or garden clean-up, for us Texans, fall is always a welcome gift to revive us after the summer beat-down!

May all your gardens be green & fruitful!

 

By Mary Ann Steele, Somervell County Master Gardener

If you don’t have the space for a vegetable or fruit garden, consider the possibility of container gardening. 

Container-grown garden benefits extend beyond bushels of fresh produce. When growing in these closed-system environments, you are able to more easily manage soil and pests. They are also a wonderful way to introduce children to the joys and rewards of vegetable gardening.

So, grab your garden gloves and let’s get started! You will need container-friendly plants, fast draining growing media, suitable containers, and time for hands on tending.

Almost any vegetable that thrives in a typical backyard garden will do well as a container grown plant. Just choose the right varieties. The “soil” that goes into the container delivers all the water, nutrients, physical structure, and support that your plants need to grow vigorous roots, stalks, leaves, and fruit. Soil from your yard is definitely NOT a good choice. A fairly lightweight mix is best for container gardening. 

Fill your containers with organic soilless mixtures found at your garden supply center or prepare your own. Most container gardeners have found that this mixture works best. In addition to draining quickly, these mixes are lightweight and free from soil borne diseases and weed seed.

To determine when to sprout your seeds and how many hours of sunlight they require, read the back of your seed package. Plant your specimens at the same time you would in a regular garden and place your containers in a sunny location.

You can give your seeds a jump start by germinating them indoors for four to eight weeks before you put them in their final containers. Transplants should have their first two to four true leaves before setting them out.

Tending to your container garden is easy. Just keep the growing medium fairly moist with a diluted water-fertilizer blend and make certain the water drains well. Once a week, leach the unused fertilizer out of the growing mix by watering it with plain water until it flows freely from the bottom. This flushes harmful minerals out of the water.

Water temperature does matter! Make certain the water feels cool before applying to the plants, especially if the water hose has been sitting in the sun.

Vegetables and fruits grown in containers can still be affected by diseases and insects, so be sure to check regularly.

Harvest your fruits and vegetables when they reach the peak of maturity. Pick them when their flavor has been fully developed. After harvest season, compost the plant and the soil or growing medium and use fresh material for next year. 

Container gardening makes it easy for everyone to grow produce. You may have only a few pots of herbs on your windowsill or a patio filled with flats of tomatoes, squash, and pole beans. Any space with warm sunshine makes a great place for setting up a container garden. 

Happy Gardening!

By Julie Conner, Somervell County Master Gardener

From Newsletter archives

Perennials are a landscape best friend as they come back every year.  In my yard I have 3 favorites: Gregg’s Blue Mistflower, Lantana and Mexican Petunias.  All 3 are durable, tough and very hardy.  Because they thrive so well in our Texas soil,  I plant in confined areas, as Blue Mistflower and Mexican Petunias can become invasive if not controlled.

 

Gregg’s Blue Mistflower is a guaranteed butterfly attractor, even when the flowers turn brown. It’s a native plant which can grow even in partial shade. Cut back in early spring to encourage new growth.

 

Lantana is a good trailing plant for walls or raised beds, and also a very colorful butterfly magnet. Plant in early spring and give them lots of sun. Prune them to keep their shape, and water before they dry out.

 

Mexican Petunias, or ruellias, come in low-growing varieties for ground cover or as tall as 3 feet.  Early spring is a good time to plant in an area which receives at least 6 hours of sun.  Only prune to remove bloom stalks.  Most blooms are purple, but they do come in pink and white. All 3 plants are colorful, long-lasting bloomers.  You will enjoy them year after year.

By Mary Ann Steele, Somervell County Master Gardener

Zinnias fill your summer garden with bright colors of yellow, pink, red, white and orange. These easy to grow annuals are a favorite of many gardeners because of their prolific blooms which make excellent additions to summer bouquets.

Zinnias thrive in hot weather and grow best in a bright, sunny spot. Sow zinnia seeds directly in the ground once the danger of frost has passed. Plant the seeds about 1/2” deep and keep the soil moist during germination. Once your zinnias are established, you will find that these heat loving flowers like their soil on the dry side. Seeds can be started indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost, but handle seeds delicately when transplanting.

Zinnia species grow easily nearly anywhere in the USDA zones 3 thru 8. Try the petite flowering “Persian Carpet”, which blooms in autumnal colors of golden yellow, burnt orange and crimson. If you are looking for large, luscious flowers, you can’t go wrong with classic favorites like “Cut and Come Again” and “State Fair” varieties. Each produce bouquets full of big blooms in colors of bubble gum pink, sunny yellow, deep scarlet, and sunset orange. Zinnias produce blooms through summer and into the fall. Be sure to cut them often to encourage more flowers.

Happy Gardening!

resource:  Organic Farm and Garden magazine

By Tessa Chenoa, Somervell County Master Gardener

One of my favorite parts of gardening is weeding.  I weed differently than most people.  I realize that most of the “weeds” I should be pulling are grasses and forbs native to the ecosystem I’m in.  Instead, when I “weed,” I am pulling anything that doesn’t belong in my ecosystem.  Side by side with the peppers or onions in my garden, yellow wood sorrel thrives.  I almost never pull wood sorrel, as I love to grab a few leaves whenever I wander by.  I love their lemony taste.

Last year, I let a gaura stay among my tomato plants. One. One gaura. Today I am considering how best to transplant about a hundred baby gaura plants to a more suitable location so I can use my square foot bed again.

In my pollinator beds, “weeds” coexist with native plants I’ve bought and paid for or been gifted from friends.  I don’t like to pull a plant I am unfamiliar with until I see what it looks like growing alongside all the rest.  That’s why I have autumn sage and coral honeysuckle giving way to native gum bumelia, which the tiny native birds my land is set aside for so love for nesting.

I never weed out dandelions.  Never.  Why would I throw out such a useful plant?  I love the leaves in sandwiches, its ground-up root makes a tea good for your liver, it has a fanciful name that always makes me smile, and the happiest face of any flower…and I haven’t even gotten to the “old grannies!”  I can certainly do with a wish…or two hundred.

Most of what I do pull out when I weed is grasses – and normally non-native, invasive grasses.  Their runners take over my garden beds and choke all the light from the soil, leaving no room for any of my lovely natives.

So, if I really weed out so few types of plants, why do I love it so?  First, I always feel like Mary Lennox*, clearing the spaces around the struggling bulbs and new plants, giving them space and light to grow.  It’s rewarding to come back a few days later and see that my efforts have made a difference.  

Weeding helps me alleviate stress, too.  Most people would say it’s the fresh air, or the time outside, or even the exertion.  But there’s more.  As I sink my fingers or weeding tool under the root ball of a weed and gently coax it up out of the ground, it gives a very satisfying “pop” as it lets go of the earth. I often think of a frustrating moment at work or an asinine coworker, whose head, at least in my imagination, can be lopped off.  I imagine it makes just such a “pop.”  Fun.

Mostly, though, I love the creativity of it.  Just as in music the silences are as important as the notes, in a garden spaces keep the plants from spilling all over each other in a haphazard, mangled, cacophonous arpeggio played by a 13-fingered pianist. So, weeding creates the rests, the spaces, the room for the blooms to sing out individually.

*from The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Copyright 1911 F.H. Burnett, published by J.B. Lippincott Company

By Merilyn Cranford, Somervell County Master Gardener

If you haven’t heard about the Somervell County Master Gardener Association library, it must be the best kept secret in town. The library is waiting for you to come in and browse all the wonderful reading material on plants, trees, wildflowers, landscaping, etc.

Our library is a treasure of how-to books, encyclopedias for the beginner, and books on problem-solving for those with questions. To find our library, come to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and ask to browse through our collections.

You will find books on organic gardening, as well as vegetable and herb gardening and composting. Also, look for books on Native and adaptive plants, such as “How to Grow Native Plants of Texas and the Southwest” by Jill Nokes, along with “Landscaping with Native Texas Plants” by Sally Wasowski and Julie Ryan.

Additionally, you will find pamphlets published by the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Native Plant Society of Texas. Further, there are some back issues of Texas Gardener and a few CDs.

Now that the best kept secret is out, you are welcome to use the library material in the meeting room at the Extension Office. So, don’t pass up the opportunity….IT’S FREE!

By Georgette Recker, Somervell County Master Gardener Intern

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” -Marcel Proust

We are grateful for many things in our lives. Home, family, nourishment, friends – all are among the blessings most of us would list if asked. Fortunately, as we move through the years, we continue to fill our baskets, and those baskets become bountiful beyond our greatest hopes. I decided to become a Master Gardener, and for that I am grateful.

Having come to understand that becoming a Master Gardener follows a similar path as a tiny seed, I planted my tiny seed of hope and began to set down roots in the Somervell County chapter of Master Gardeners. Smiles, hugs, laughter, new knowledge, and inclusion have allowed me to feel grounded in the group as my roots have securely anchored.

Even the most inexperienced gardener knows that stems and leaves follow the development of roots. Eight out of ten classes have passed now with only two left before the training period is over. During this time, blessing after blessing have appeared just as the leaves of a plant unfold and reach for the sun. A compliment is given to me, and there is a new leaf. An opinion is asked of me, and there is a new leaf. A joke is shared, and there is another. I learn something about a new friend, and a whole new branch of leaves sprout. I have met so many wonderful, accomplished, and amazing people – Master Gardeners, interns, and teachers. They make me happy. I’m basking in the sunshine of my Master Gardener community, and just like the leaves use sunshine to create nourishment for a plant and send it down the stem to the roots, I am soaking up new people and experiences, and my soul is being nourished.

I am grateful to the people who make me happy. They are the charming gardeners who are making my soul blossom. My basket is overflowing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Try the following tips for less water usage and a healthier lawn this summer:

1. Mow at the upper end of the appropriate mowing height range for  your species of turfgrass.
Taller Grass = Deeper Roots. Deeper roots can improve overall water infiltration and access to water deeper in the soil.

2. Follow the 1/3 Rule. Mow frequently enough to avoid removing more than 1/3 of the total turfgrass mowing height at one time.
Scalped grass is stressed grass.
Stressed grass will be less tolerant to heat and drought, and more vulnerable to other pests or fungal pathogens.

3. Water deeply and infrequently. Try to water to a depth of approximately 6″ each time you water. Watering this way encourages deeper, denser root growth. Again, this can improve infiltration and access to water deeper in the soil.
Turfgrass can typically be maintained by irrigating 1-2x per week to provide between 1″ and 1.5″ of total water during summer months. Be sure to adjust based on natural precipitation.

4. Wait to water when visual wilt is occurring, and do so late at night or early in the morning. Watering late at night or early in the morning will reduce evaporative losses, improve water-use efficiency, and reduce length of overall leaf wetness, which reduces disease potential.

5. Use the Cycle Soak Method.
Because sprinkler precipitation rates usually exceed soil infiltration rates, cycle soaking improves soil water infiltration and reduces runoff by “pulsing” water onto the lawn in small amounts over several hours.

resources: aggieturf.tamu.edu

wateruniversity.tamu.edu

The Master Gardener plant sale on March 30th was definitely a success! We want to thank everyone in the community who braved the cold and windy weather that day to shop or browse. The sale will definitely be an annual event. It was great to visit and share the love of gardening with neighbors.