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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.

 


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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...

 


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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

 

 

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