Savvygardener.com


 

Visit Our Website
Previous Issues
Buyer's Guide  
Tell A Friend  

Donations

Send A Postcard!

Bookstore  
Magazines 
Gardening Catalogs

Site Search
Contact Us
Submit A Tip

Feature Articles

~ Houseplant Care
~ When to Start
Seeds Indoors
~ Seed Starting Indoors
~ Vegetable Garden Calendar
~ Seed Starting Tomatoes

~

Shrub Pruning Calendar
~ Pruning Clematis 
~ Gardening in the Shade
~ Summer-Flowering Bulb Care
~ Drought-Tolerant Flowers for KC
~ Preparing for a Soil Test
~ Changing the pH of Your Soil
~ Growing Herbs
~ All About Composting
~ All About Mulch
~ Worm Composting
~ When to Harvest Vegetables
~ Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
~ Organic Pesticides & Biopesticides
~ Cold Frames & Hot Beds
~ When to Divide Perennials
~ Dividing Spring Blooming Perennials
~ Forcing Bulbs Indoors
~ Overseeding A Lawn
~ Pruning Trees
~ Pruning Shrubs
~ Planting Trees
~ More...

Rose Tips
What's Hot... 
Nuisance of the Week
Turf Tips...
Winter Wisdom
Gardener's Glossary 

SavvyChat
~ On-Line Gardening Forum

Books We Love
Great Products
Web Resources
Event Calendar

Local Sponsors

~ Bradfield Industries
~ Family Tree Nursery
~ The Kelly Gallery
~ The Lawn Ranger
~ Missouri Organic Recycling
~ The Sweet Onion

Subscribe

Tell A Friend

Privacy Pledge

 

 

 

Great Soil and Compost!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 25, 2004

The Best Of Times...
Have you been out in the garden looking for spring? There are signs everywhere
(photos). The lawn is starting to green up, bulbs are coming up through the mulch and many magnolias in our area are starting to bud out. This past Sunday I could stand it no longer! Donning my gardening gloves I pulled the rake out of the garage and went to work on cleaning up the leaves left over from fall. What fun! So much so that calling it work is a bit of a stretch. I was happy as a clam! Hard to believe that something so mundane could make me so happy. I guess it's true what they say - some of the smallest things in life can bring us much joy!

The highly anticipated Johnson County Home & Garden Show is this weekend, February 27th - 29th. An entire weekend to wander around in a pre-spring fantasy! Our booth number is #642 so look us up. It is going to be a hectic but great weekend. The weather is even supposed to cooperate with temperatures in the mid 50's. March is such a great month - spring break, March Madness (from a woman who totally loves NCAA basketball) and an opportunity to be outside. It doesn't get much better than that!

~ Shelly  

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3...
When was the last time you had your garden soil tested?  Never?  Shame on you!  Soil testing is one of the most important, and overlooked, things you can do to better understand your garden.  Fortunately it's not very difficult and doesn't cost much either.  Your county extension service probably offers soil testing for a nominal fee.  If you decide to have your soil tested at the extension office simply follow these guidelines for getting a good sample for them to evaluate (note: soil should be dry or nearly dry): 

  1. In the area you want tested take a garden trowel and plunge it at least six inches into the soil.
  2. Rotate the trowel 360 degrees creating a tapered column of soil. 
  3. Lift the column of soil out of the ground and place it in a large container. 
  4. Repeat the above for every 25 square feet in your garden. 
  5. Thoroughly combine the samples. 
  6. Remove rocks, grass, roots and other "non-soil" debris. 
  7. Put about one pint of this soil in a clean container and mark it with an identifying label. 
  8. Take the sample to your county extension office for evaluation. It may take several weeks before the results are available. 

You may want to have several soil tests performed - one for each distinctly different garden on your property.

Paper Or Plastic?
Bagworms are evident when you see those funny little brown bags hanging from Junipers and many other trees and shrubs.  It's actually the bagworm eggs that are over-wintering in those sacks.  In late May and early June, these eggs will hatch and the very tiny caterpillars start feeding.  Start your control measures now by removing the brown bags and disposing of them.  This is a very effective, chemical-free way to reduce the damage they might otherwise cause later this year.

This One's A Cut Above...
When we started Savvygardener.com one of the things we wanted to provide was information that was truly useful to area gardeners based on our weather, our climate, our everything.  A great example of this is one of our most popular and informative articles -
The Shrub Pruning Calendar.  A Savvygardener.com exclusive, this is the Kansas City area gardener's definitive guide to when, and when not, to prune a wide variety of shrubs.  Check it out!  We'll bet it answers some questions and clears up a lot of mystery.


What Are You Reading
When You're Not Reading
Savvygardener.com
?

Great Gardening Magazines
Are Right Here!

 

 

A Clean Start...
Here's another important tip for seed starters.  Make sure you thoroughly wash last year's plastic seed-starting containers.  Believe me it makes a difference!  And if your seedlings have had disease problems in the past, you'll need to use a mixture containing 10 percent household bleach and water to really sterilize the containers.

Early Bloomers...
Now that the snow and ice have melted, and depending on your microclimates, you may soon see adventurous bulbs pushing through the ground - especially snow drops, crocus, and early daffodils.  Keep an eye out!  Matted leaves and dead grass left over from fall may create a barrier to these upstarts.  Help them a little by gently raking away any debris and allowing the foliage and flowers to break through the soil more easily.

 


Tell Your Friends About
Savvygardener.com!

You Could Win A $50 Gift Certificate

Details...

 

 

Winter Wisdom...
It’s amazing how the first foray into the 50’s after a long and hard period of snow and freezing weather affects us. It’s only natural that we should want to get outdoors and get at the gardening tasks that await us. If our weather runs true to its normal pattern, we should not settle into spring mode quite yet!  A healthy list of late winter chores awaits you in this week's Winter Wisdom...

Cold Season Seeding For Cool Season Grass...
OK, we've said it many times before: "The best time to overseed cool-season grasses (such as tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass) is September."   This is because the turf has more time to mature before crabgrass germination in the spring and the heat stress of summer.  That being said, wintertime dormant seeding is sometimes appropriate to help fill in bare spots.  (Dormant seeding is not recommended for large areas due to the possibility of erosion occurring before the seed becomes mature enough to hold the soil.)

Dormant overseeding is done during the winter (December through February) when it is too cold for germination to take place.  As with any seeding program, it is vital that good seed-soil contact is achieved.  There are several methods that are commonly used in dormant seeding. 

  • One method is to seed when there has been a light snowfall of up to an inch over unfrozen soil (light enough that bare spots can still be seen).  Spread seed by hand on areas that need thickening up.  As the snow melts it brings the seed into good contact with the soil where it will germinate in the spring.  
  • Another method is dependent on the surface of the soil being moist followed by some freezing weather.  As moist soil freezes and thaws, small pockets are formed on the wet, bare soil which are perfect for catching and holding seed.  As the soil dries, the pockets collapse and cover the seed.  
  • Verticutting can also be used as long as the soil is not frozen. 

The idea here is to get the grass seed germinating in the spring as early as possible.  Keep in mind that there are some limitations on what herbicides can be used for weed control.  Tupersan (siduron) can be used as a crabgrass preventer on new seedings but is relatively short-lived.  Other pre-emergence herbicides require that the turf be well established before application.  Turf that has been mowed several times is usually considered mature enough for herbicide application.

Source

Finally...
"The country habit has me by the heart,
For he's bewitched forever who has seen,
Not with his eyes but with his vision,
Spring Flow down the woods and stipple leaves with sun."

~ Vita Sackville-West, Poet

To change your e-mail address, delivery method, or to stop delivery please follow the "Update Your Profile"  link at the bottom of your e-mailed newsletter.

Organic Gardening Magazine

© 1999-2004 Savvygardener.com, Inc. All rights reserved.  If you wish to copy, transmit, or otherwise duplicate any of the material from our website please ask us first.  Thank you.