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May
30, 2001
Flowers
and Turtles and Snakes, Oh My!
I hope that your Memorial Day weekend was as pleasurable as
ours. Kevin and I piddled and planted more perennials and
annuals all day Saturday. We were exhausted at the end of
the day but I think we are close to being finished. Perhaps
a few more annuals for the front garden and that will be
it. Kevin is probably laughing as he reads this. He
knows that I am never quite satisfied with the amount I have
planted and I always seem to find more space to plant a few more
impatiens or whatever. Sunday was spent relaxing and
finishing our spring "to do" list.
Memorial
Day morning was spent at the Overland
Park Arboretum. It has been sometime since I have
been there and boy how the place has changed! I was amazed
at the beautiful waterfalls and the thousands of flowers that
have been planted to create gentle flowing paths. The
children were thrilled by all of the wildlife we saw while
exploring. I think that the most impressive animals we
watched were snakes. Now, I have never been a snake fan but
I must say that there is something very interesting about
watching them in their natural habitat. These were water
snakes and we must have seen five or six of them, three at one
time crawling all over each other! Ugh! The children
loved it. Morgan, our oldest, has the same fascination I do
about snakes. They're kind of fun to watch when they are
not under foot or too close. Of course you can only guess
how the boys reacted. I thought Jake was going to try to
pick one up! There were also large numbers of turtles, big
and small, swimming in the ponds or sunning themselves on large
logs. (Very cute and not as scary.) One turtle was
discovered meandering in the grass so we all gently picked him up
for a closer look. What a great day of fun and
adventure! It's not Powell but I would highly recommend
taking your children there. Nature is at its best with
plants and animals coexisting together. Give yourself
plenty of time because there is a lot of ground you'll want to
cover.
~
Shelly
Mulch
Matters...
Well, the unofficial start of summer was this weekend and as the
real thing sneaks up on Kansas City gardeners we must prepare our
gardens for the heat and drought-like conditions that seem
inevitable. Mulching your garden is one of the best things
you can do to help retain soil moisture and keep weeds at bay.
Missouri
Organic Recycling has already supplied us with lots of
beautiful red cedar mulch for our gardens. Here are some
common mulching materials and a few thoughts on each:
Bark
Mulches are very common and effective. They
are available as chips, chunks, nuggets or shredded.
In addition to being generally attractive bark mulches
resist compaction quite well. |
Wood
Chips are also common, effective and economical.
They can deplete the soil of nitrogen however so
additional fertilizing may be required. |
Pine
Needles are especially good around acid loving
plants like azaleas and blueberries. |
Straw
is inexpensive and is often used in large vegetable
gardens. Make sure it is free of crop and weed
seeds or you're just making more work for yourself. |
Grass
Clippings should only be used after they have dried
out thoroughly. If the source lawn has weeds your
mulched garden will likely get them too. |
Rocks
can be attractive and effective but they don't provide
any of the decomposition benefits of organic mulches.
Rock mulch in direct sun can get quite hot causing
problems for some tender plants. |
Black
Plastic and Fabric aren't much to look at but they
do keep the weeds down. |
As a
general rule mulching with anything is better than not
mulching at all. It's that effective.
For an
in-depth look at this important topic don't miss All
About Mulch in our Features section.
Itchy,
Scratchy, Savvy...
Poison ivy rash is an unfortunate byproduct of working
outdoors for many gardeners. The rash we get from our
exposure to poison ivy (as well as poison oak and sumac) is
an allergic reaction to contact with an oil called urushiol (oo-ROO-she-ol).
All species of poison ivy, oak and sumac have urushiol in their
roots, stems, leaves and fruit. The oil or sap is released
when plants are bruised. For this reason poison ivy rashes are
more common in the spring and early summer when leaves and stems
are tender. The sap may be deposited on the skin by direct
contact with the plant, through contact with contaminated objects
such as shoes, clothing, tools and animals, or as airborne
urushiol particles from burning plants.
I'll bet
you still cling to at least one of the poison ivy myths
below. Now is a good time to set the record straight:
- Myth 1
Scratching poison ivy blisters will spread the rash. Not true.
Fluid discharged from blisters will not spread the rash.
Well
before the blisters form, however, you may spread the urushiol
on your hands to other parts of your body.
- Myth 2
Poison ivy is contagious. Not true. The rash is simply a
reaction to urushiol. The rash cannot pass from person to
person; only the urushiol can be spread by direct contact.
- Myth 3
You can "catch" poison ivy simply by being near the
plants. Not true. Direct contact or contact with smoke from
burning plants is needed to introduce urushiol onto the
victim.
- Myth 4
Once allergic, always allergic to poison ivy. Not true.
A
person's sensitivity changes over time, even from season to
season. People who were sensitive to urushiol as children may
not be allergic as adults.
- Myth 5
There's no need to worry about dead plants. Not true.
Urushiol remains
active on any surface, including dead plants, for up to 5
years!
- Myth 6
One way to protect yourself from poison ivy is to keep
yourself covered outdoors. Partly true. Urushiol can stick to
your clothes which you can touch and spread to your skin
later.
Source
What
Does Green Mean?
Gardeners are often concerned about the presence of green
skin on their potatoes. The green color is caused by the
presence of chlorophyll, a natural plant pigment which is
tasteless and harmless. The concern with greened potatoes
should not be the color but the fact that solanine, a
potentially toxic alkaloid, develops in the same area along with
the chlorophyll. Greened potatoes, therefore, are often
higher in solanine than those that have not greened. The
bitter taste associated with greened potatoes is caused by the
solanine, not the chlorophyll.
The amount
of greening is not a direct measure of its solanine content,
since the synthesis of chlorophyll and solanine are separate
processes. And the factors affecting greening of potatoes
include more than light exposure. Greening is affected by
variety, maturity and age, temperature, intensity and quality of
light, and duration of light. White skinned varieties often
green more readily than red or russet varieties.
Savvygardeners
will make sure their potatoes are well covered with soil or straw
to ensure a tastier and healthier harvest.
Source
Rose
Tips by Al Karsten...
For roses June means more fertilizer, deadheading, mildew and
blackspot prevention, and much more! A rose lovers work is
never done but getting it done right is easier with June Rose
Tips by Al Karsten...
Pretty
As A Picture?
Don't you hate it when you buy a plant because it looks so
good in a picture or display only to find that it doesn't live up to its
photogenic promise in your own garden? This could easily happen
with variegated hostas if you're not careful about where you plant
them. You see, the best variegated color pattern is
developed on plants in a semi-shady location. Place them in
direct sun and they may just become a single shade of green.
What's
Hot On The Hotline...
Our Extension Master Gardener volunteers who staff the
Hotline, have been fielding a number of questions about the
failure of some perennial plants and shrubs to come back this
spring. No signs of life where your Rose of Sharon or Butterfly
Bush used to be? Find out why in this
week's What's
Hot on the Hotline...
Tell Me
Why...
One of the most common questions we get asked is simply,
"Why won't my plant bloom?" Why indeed.
There are often several factors involved but most can be
explained by one of the following circumstances:
- Age of
Plant - Being too young or immature is a very common
reason that many trees do not flower. Plants need to
reach a certain level of maturity before they begin to flower
each year
- Shade
- Lack of adequate light is another very common reason that
many types of plants do not flower. Plants may grow but
not flower in the shade.
- Cold
or Frost Injury - Cold weather may kill flower buds
or partially opened flowers. Plants that are not fully
hardy in our area are the most susceptible to this type of
cold injury.
- Drought
- Flowers or flower buds dry and drop off when there is
temporary lack of moisture in the plants.
- Improper
Pruning - Some plants bloom only on last year’s
wood. Pruning plants at the wrong time of the year can
remove the flower buds for next year’s blossoms. Many
spring flowering plants, such as azaleas begin setting next
year’s flower buds in the late spring. Pruning these
plants in the summer or fall may prevent flowering next
year. Cutting back a plant severely, such as with
climbing roses, can remove all the flowering wood.
- Nutrient
Imbalance - Too much nitrogen can cause plants to produce
primarily leaves and stems. The plant will be large and
usually very green and healthy but will have few or no
flowers.
Source
Finally... "Earth,
my dearest, I will. Oh believe me, you no longer need your
springtimes to win me over - one of them, ah, even one, is
already too much for my blood. Unspeakably, I have belonged
to you, from the first." ~
Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, 9th, 1923 |
|