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April 14, 2004 |
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A Cautionary
Tale...
I learned a very valuable lesson this past weekend. Always
ask for permission before cutting. A mile from where we live,
in what I thought
was a vacant lot, are eight,
fully bloomed forsythia bushes. They
are magnificent! Every time I drove by I contemplated stopping to
snip a couple of branches to bring home. So Saturday I grabbed my
clippers and Morgan (our thirteen-year-old
daughter) and I jumped into the car to
clip some sprigs. As I was cutting,
a man approached me and asked me what I was doing. I explained
that I was simply cutting a few twigs for a vase. He
demanded that I stop what I was doing
as the forsythia
were his property and I was stealing. I apologized and picked up
my things to leave and before I knew it he had taken the keys
from my car and told me that I was not going anywhere. To make a
long story short, I tried to retrieve my keys but was thrown to
the ground in the process. Moments later
the police arrived (thank goodness). I
was ticketed for theft and the man who
threw me to the ground was ticketed for battery. All over three
twigs of forsythia. Who would have
thought? Please learn from my mistake and
misfortune.
A year ago,
friends of ours Jeff and Susan Green purchased
Randy's Lakeview Nursery & Bulk Supercenter. After getting
through a very hectic first year they have
joined Savvygardener.com as a sponsor
(making this free newsletter possible). I had the
opportunity of visiting with them last week at their nursery and
boy was I impressed. Pallets of pavers and
natural stone, a
selection of decorative rock you can not even imagine,
and a wide variety of plants, trees and
shrubs. You'll find mulch, topsoil, sand and anything else you
might need to complete your landscape
project. Take time to visit their
business. They are professional, friendly and just great people.
Don't forget to tell them that you're a
Savvygardener!
This
weather is perfect for gardening. Get out and enjoy it!
~
Shelly
Tuckered Out Tulips?
Unfortunately it's not uncommon for many
modern tulip varieties to "wear out" after a few years and
eventually produce insignificant blooms or no blooms at all. Here
are some tips to increase the chances of perennial blooming of
your tulips:
-
Plant the bulbs at the depth indicated on the packaged they
arrived in.
-
Water them - especially in the fall - to help develop strong
roots.
-
Clip off flower heads after they have bloomed.
-
Do not remove the foliage until it has turned brown and
withered.
Longer
Life for Lilies...
No doubt many of you received a
lily or two (or more) for Easter.
Unfortunately the lily doesn't survive as a houseplant, but it
can be transplanted outdoors where it may bloom again this
year.
Find a
sunny spot in the garden to plant the bulb. Remove the plant
from its container and loosen the roots. Plant the bulb a few
inches deeper than it was in the container and cover it with
soil. Water thoroughly and fertilize with an all-purpose garden
fertilizer. For the remainder of the season water and fertilize
as you would your other garden plantings. Don't be alarmed when
the top withers and dies. New shoots will emerge and may flower
in July or August.
Understand
that lilies are not normally winter-hardy in the greater Kansas
City area. To improve your
chances for success, mulch them with 4 inches of straw or leaves
in the fall. With luck you will have new flowers again next
June!
Circular Logic...
A popular and
effective way to prevent disease in the vegetable garden is
called crop rotation. By rotating the location of vegetable
plantings within the garden each season you can greatly reduce
the likelihood of soil-borne disease. This method works best
when you rotate crop families from place to place and
the rotation includes at least three families. The effectiveness
of crop rotation is diminished when the total gardening area is
quite small. Just do your best! Here's a list of the most
common home garden vegetables and their associated families:
Family |
Family Members |
Alliaceae |
Chive, garlic,
leek, onion, shallot |
Apiaceae |
Carrot, celery,
parsley, parsnip |
Asteraceae |
Endive, lettuce |
Brassicaceae |
Broccoli,
Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale,
kohlrabi, radish, rutabaga, turnip |
Chenopodiaceae |
Beet, Swiss
chard, spinach |
Convolvulaceae |
Sweet potato |
Curcurbitaceae |
Cucumber,
gourd, melons, pumpkin, squash |
Fabaceae |
Lima bean, pea,
snap bean, soy bean |
Malvaceae |
Okra |
Poaceae |
Corn |
Solanaceae |
Eggplant,
pepper, potato, tomato |
Randy's Lakeview Nursery
& Bulk Supercenter
Your one stop
shop for all of your landscaping needs!
Find out more
here!
|
Daffodil's Deadly Secret...
If you take my
cue and decide to cut some flowering bulbs from the garden make
sure you keep the daffodils separated from other cuttings.
Daffodil stems secrete a fluid that can drastically reduce the life of other cut
flowers in the same vase. After a couple of days in a vase
they should be OK for sharing the same space.
Lumpy Lawns?
Most lawns become bumpy because of
the natural settling of soil over time. Professionals will apply
thin layers of sand or soil over finely manicured turf and then
use modified brooms to move the topdressing down to the soil
surface. This topdressing will eventually help to smooth out
minor undulations over many years while not harming the turf
plants. Home lawns can accept up to about
¼
inch
of topdressing.
If the lawn
is in really bad shape, it is better to start over. Kill
it with a non-selective herbicide like Roundup, till the soil to
2"-4” deep, work it smooth, and allow
it to settle with rain, irrigation, and/or time (the more time to
settle the better). Then work it smooth with shallow raking once
more after it settles and seed this fall. This settling part of
the process is regularly overlooked by contractors and homeowners
anxious to see grass, which usually results in a bumpy lawn down
the road.
Source
Tell Your Friends About
Savvygardener.com!
You
Could Win A $50 Gift Certificate
Details...
|
What's Hot On The Hotline...
As promised in last week’s article, here is an update on one
of the area’s newer “demonstration” gardens. This garden provides
the public with an unusual opportunity to stroll, enjoy and
learn.
The garden is the Monet
Garden at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Garden located one half
mile west of US 69 on 179th Street. Since its dedication almost two years
ago, the one-acre Monet Garden has become increasingly popular.
You'll find more details in this
week's
What's Hot On the Hotline...
Crabgrass
Preventers...
Crabgrass preventers are another name for
preemergence herbicides that prevent crabgrass seeds from
developing into mature plants. They don’t actually keep the seed
from germinating; rather, the germinating plant takes up some of
the herbicide and is killed. With few exceptions they will have
no effect on existing crabgrass plants. Therefore, preventers
have to be applied before crabgrass germinates. Additionally,
they don’t last forever once applied to the soil. Microorganisms
and natural processes in the soil begin to gradually break them
down soon after they are applied. Most crabgrass preventers are
fairly ineffective after about 60 days, although there is
considerable variation among products (Dimension and Barricade
are longer lasting). For our area
crabgrass typically begins to germinate around May 1, or a little
later. Therefore, April 15 is a good target date for which to
apply the preventer; this gives the active ingredients some time
to evenly disperse in the soil before crabgrass germination
starts. Additionally, weather varies from one spring to the next,
and with it the timing of crabgrass germination. For this reason
application-timing of preventers is sometimes based on the bloom
of ornamental plants. The Eastern redbud tree is a good one to
use: when the trees in your area are approaching full-bloom,
apply your crabgrass preventer. A follow-up application will be
needed about 8 weeks later, unless you are using Dimension or
Barricade.
Source
Finally... "If you have a
garden and a library, you have everything you need."
~ Cicero |
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