Winter Wisdom
Brought to you in cooperation with the Kansas State University Johnson County Research and Extension Master Gardeners. Each week we feature interesting topics for winter reading.
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Week of
11/4/02
With this week’s article, “What’s Hot on the Hotline?” begins its annual metamorphosis to reemerge as “Winter Wisdom for Gardeners”. This coincides with the closing of the EMG Hotline on October 31. It will reopen again March 1, 2003 reinvigorated and ready to go!
During November, December, January and February, you are welcome to continue to refer gardening and horticultural questions to the Johnson County Research and Extension office telephone number, (913) 764-6300. The Extension Hort staff will do its best to field them from 8:30am to 5:00pm daily Monday through Friday, until the Extension Master Gardener volunteers return on March 1, 2003.
Gardeners are aware that the winter is a time of continued growth and development, even if it is mainly under ground and out of sight. Roots, tubers, bulbs and rhizomes continue to function building and storing plant nutrients for the coming growing season. It is vitally important that we remember to lend a helping hand, especially with evergreens whose moisture requirements continue, and in many cases intensify. Perennials and evergreens will benefit from thorough fall irrigation so that they may enter the winter well supplied with moisture. Unless we are blessed with a heavy blanket of snow, watering of evergreens should continue throughout the winter months when warm breaks allow the use of a garden hose. The benefits will show in improved plant health, vigor and disease resistance. If you have mulched young evergreens and your perennials beds judiciously, they will benefit from the soil temperature moderation and moisture retention qualities mulch provides.
Among the joys of fall gardening is the harvest of pumpkins and ornamental gourds. Many gourds are grown for their decorative value alone, although it is easy to see in their shapes the traditional role many varieties played as utensils, dippers and bottles, going back to ancient civilizations. Small gourds in green, yellow, white and combinations are popular and as varied as are their shapes that add to their fascination and their decorative value. The most popular shapes are Turk’s Turban, pear, round and oval. The annual vines are easily grown from seed planted in full sun after all danger of frost has passed. They have a long growing season from 120 to 140 days. They are not harvested until fully mature and the stem begins to dry.
Picked gourds are washed and dried, and cured for a week in a well-ventilated area to let the skin harden and toughen. Complete drying may take an additional two to three weeks. To hasten the process, small holes may be punched or drilled in the bottoms. Adequate drying and curing is necessary to color retention and preservation. To enhance preservation, thoroughly dried and cured gourds may be shellacked.
Most pumpkin varieties are now grown for decoration rather than for eating. It is hard to think of people being deprived of the gustatory glories of pumpkin soup, breads and puddings, but the color and shape lend themselves particularly well to seasonal decorations.
Traditional pumpkin carving is giving way to easier and less messy surface decoration with poster paints or colored markers. The pumpkins themselves now can be grown in solid or variegated orange, green, or in a particularly ghostly white!
Articles submitted by Bill Latimer, Johnson County Extension
Horticulture Assistant and Dennis Patton, Johnson County Extension Horticulture Agent.
2001 - 2002 Winter Wisdom
Archive
2000 -
2001 Winter Wisdom Archive
* Winter Wisdom is an information service of the Kansas State Johnson County Research and Extension Master Gardeners. Research-based responses are provided by Extension Master Gardener volunteers weekdays from March 1 through October 31, from 9:00 am to 4:30pm . To telephone, call (913) 764-6306 or visit the Extension Office at 13480 South Arapaho Drive, Olathe, Kansas. Visit their website at www.oznet.ksu.edu/Johnson
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