April
10, 2002
April
Showers...
What a relief, rain at last. Not just any rain.
The best kind of rain - gentle, slow, soaking. Monday was
the perfect day for curling up with a favorite gardening magazine
or book. The rain was so lulling. I really wanted to
take a nap but could not get Noah or Jake to buy into the idea.
As the dog and I were out walking I was amazed at how everything
has turned a lush shade of green. How is it that one
day the landscape still reminds you of winter - dull,
brown-looking and then you get a couple days of rain and
everything around you turns green? Mother Nature just snaps
her fingers and voila - green it is. I am always a
bit vexed by how quickly the change takes place. Two days
ago my redbud still had new buds on its branches and now it is in
bloom. All of our bulbs are up and ready to burst.
The excitement is almost too much to bear. Spring has got
to be the best time of the year. New beginnings, a
cleansing of the soul. How great it is to be in love with
gardening!
We've had a
lot of people ask where they can find the Bradfield
Natural Fertilizers. One sure place is Family
Tree Nursery. Follow the Bradfield link for a list of
other retailers.
It sounds like we are going to have perfect weather for Earl
May's Savvygardener.com party this Thursday evening. The
forecast is calling for temperatures in the 70's. Perfect
party weather! Don't forget - you must print out your Savvygardener.com
coupon to receive your 20% discount. You may take the
coupon to any Earl May location in the Kansas City area. If
you would like to visit with Kevin and me we will be at the
Shawnee store from 6-9 PM. I don't know about you but Kevin
and I are ready to get serious about buying things to plant.
So
come join us for the fun!
~
Shelly
Dig
This, Or Don't...
Here's some advice - "Don't cultivate your
garden." This may sound kind of crazy, but the
truth is cultivating and deep hoeing can cause considerable
damage to the shallow roots of flowers and vegetables.
Also, every time you cultivate, you stir the soil and bring weed
seeds to the surface where they can germinate. A two-inch
layer of mulch will stop annual weeds, otherwise, cut off weeds
at the surface of the soil with a sharp scuffle hoe, so in a week
or 10 days, you won't have another batch to destroy. If you
do not have a scuffle hoe, pull the weeds by hand. If you
start early in the season and keep them pulled regularly, it is
not too big a job in a small to medium-sized garden.
Source
Don't
Cry For Me...
Growing onions certainly seems to be growing in
popularity. New and exciting varieties of sweet onions sure
make it a worthwhile venture. Here's some useful facts from
our friends at K-State Research & Extension:
Onions grow
vegetatively until day length reaches a certain number of
hours. Then the bulb starts to develop. Most sweet
onions are short-day onions that develop bulbs in late
spring. To get them to produce large onions, plant them
early, fertilize them well, and grow them fast so you will have a
large onion plant before bulbs start to develop, usually in mid
to late June. It is difficult to produce large-bulbed sweet
onions with short-day varieties. Another limitation of
sweet onions is that they don't store well. They must be
used within a month or two of harvest. Hotter, more pungent
onions store better than sweet onions.
A final
comment about onions. Onions are biennials that produce a
seedstalk, enter a cold dormant period, and then resume growth
the second year. If planted too early, onion plants or sets
that are too large have a tendency to bolt, producing a seedstalk
later in the spring. Select small sized sets or onion
plants. Place larger sets or plants in a separate part of
the row so you can use them for green onions or salad onions if
they start to develop a seedstalk.
Source
Proper
Pruning...
Part of your spring clean-up may include some tree pruning.
Take your time and do it right. In particular don't leave
stubs behind when pruning. Stubs usually die and become
entry points for decay fungus. Instead cut just outside the
branch collar, the slightly thickened area at the base of the
branch. As an extra precaution remember that pruning should
never be done in damp or wet weather when the fungal spores and
bacteria that infect plants through fresh wounds spread easily.
Elbow
Room...
It is easy to sow too many seeds in a row of beets or
carrots. Carrot seeds are small and angular making it difficult to scatter seeds
without inadvertently dropping several of them together.
Beets emerge from a capsule containing several seeds and often
come up too thick. Do your best not to overseed either of
these popular vegetables. Both of these crops need room for roots to
expand and grow.
Carrots should be spaced about 2 to 3 inches
apart, and beets 3 to 4 inches apart. Once they begin
growing you can remove some of the plants
in the row to attain these desirable plant spacings.
Source
Rose
Tips by Al Karsten
April is here and there's work to be done in the rose
beds. Our dry fall and mild winter mean special care must
be taken to ensure our roses live up to their potential this
season. Find out what to do in this month's Rose
Tips...
What's
Hot On The Hotline...
No need to tell you that we have some pretty crazy weather
this time of year. Swings in temperature leave many of us
wondering when it's really safe to plant. The facts about
our "last frost" and related issues are covered in this
week's What's
Hot on the Hotline...
Onions
We Can Do Without...
During the past few weeks wild onion and/or wild garlic have
sprung up in many home lawns. Although these weeds may appear
grass-like, they are bulb-forming perennials with slender stems
similar to the garden-variety onion only smaller. Both may appear
in early spring developing from the underground bulblets produced
during the prior season. These weeds are commonly found in poorly
drained, heavy soils and thin turf areas.
As with
many weed problems, control begins by maintaining a dense,
healthy turf stand through good cultural practices including
proper mowing height and frequency, as well as proper fertility
with emphasis on fall nitrogen. Chemical control of onion
and garlic is difficult and may not provide the expected
results. Although these weeds appear grass-like, control
can be attempted with postemergent broadleaf herbicides. But, while most broadleaf weeds such as dandelion are best
controlled in mid to late fall, applications of herbicides
containing 2,4-D, MCPP, dicamba, clopyralid, or triclopyr should
be applied for onion and garlic during early to mid spring.
And unlike most other broadleaf weeds, mowing immediately before
the herbicide application may improve uptake and control. Be sure
to carefully follow label directions.
Source
Finally... "Happiness?
The color of it must be spring green, impossible to describe
until I see a just-hatched lizard sunning on a stone. That
color, the glowing green lizard skin, repeats in every new leaf.
The regenerative power of nature explodes in every weed, stalk,
branch. Working in the mild sun, I feel the green fuse of my
body, too. Surges of energy, kaleidoscopic sunlight through
the leaves, the soft breeze that makes me want to say the word
"zephyr" - this mindless simplicity can be called
happiness." ~
Frances Mayes, Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy,
1999 |