This week's gardening tips from the Savvygardener

 

Savvygardener.com

Missouri Organic Mulch, Compost, Bulk Soil
 

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
~ Deer Resistant Plants
~ Trees that Survived the Storm
~ 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

~ Family Tree Nursery
~ Missouri Organic Recycling
~ Prestige One Landscaping
~ Ryan Lawn & Tree

Subscribe

Tell A Friend

Privacy Pledge

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 20, 2005

Can't Wait For The Weekend!
Let's see... what season are we in? Oh yes, now I remember, it's spring. It is somewhat difficult to keep the seasons separated when one seems to start running into the next. These summer-like temperatures we're having are allowing the gardens to burst into color. The hosta's are up and open and the Shasta daisy's are growing ever so quickly. What a great spring! We have gone from watching spring flowers come and go to planting summer annuals. I have never planted as early as I have planted this season so I am hoping, as I am sure many others of you are, that we don't encounter one last frost. I think we're out of the woods so for now I will enjoy every minute of every day because I am getting to do what I love... work in the garden.

Don't forget to join me this Saturday, April 23rd at Audrie Seeley's Garden Center. I will be there from 12-2 PM answering questions and just helping out. Audrie's carries a large array of perennials, annuals, shrubs and roses. There will be a lot to choose from so plan on staying awhile. Once you have chosen all of the right plants for the garden check out their unique gift area featuring original pieces of art. Local and regional artists display funky, elegant, charming and ethnic pieces. Doesn't that sound like fun?

If you are looking for some good advice on lots of different topics then you'll want to head out to Bannister Garden Center Saturday, April 23rd. From 10 AM to 3 PM there will be experts from all fields to answer your gardening questions. Their will be hourly prizes given, complimentary donuts, coffee and lunch. Wow! If you didn't have anything planned for Saturday you certainly do now.

~ Shelly  

Lawn Mowing Safety...
Gas-powered lawn mowers may be the most dangerous tool regularly used around the home. They create hot exhaust fumes. Their blades spin 2,000 to 4,000 times per minute and can turn small toys and garden debris into deadly missiles. According to Kansas State University Research and Extension, U.S. safety experts estimate lawn mower accidents severely injure 75,000 people every year. The minor accidents could easily number in the millions.

Here are two very good safety tips to follow:

  • Before mowing, search the yard – every time. Look for small objects that may be hidden from obvious view. Most lawn mower blades run at 100 to 200 miles per hour. So, if one hits a rock, wire, acorn or stick, that object can become deadly: both airborne and fast as the wink of an eye.
  • Do not mow when anyone else is in the vicinity of the mower itself and any projectiles it may create

More lawn mower safety tips can be found here...

Source

Bulb Boosters...
Depending on micro-climates, planting depth, and variety, your spring bulbs are at various stages of growth right now.  Our daffodils are long gone, and and our tulips are nearly done, but we continue to see great displays in progress all over town.  What you do with the plants after the flowers are spent is crucial to next year's growth.  Bulbs use their foliage to acquire and transport nutrients necessary for future growth.  If you cut or remove the foliage too early you will starve the bulb and consequently reduce its chances for strong growth next spring.  Cut the stems back as you would if you were cutting them for a vase.  Leave the foliage alone until it has withered on its own.  Only then should you clear it from the garden.

A Clean Break...
When transplanting flowers and veggies to the garden make sure you break off the rims of your peat pots just below ground level.  Any portion of the peat pot sticking up above the soil surface will wick away moisture and deprive your plants of much needed water.  That would be a shame considering how hard you worked getting them this far!

Clematis Wilt...
The most serious disease of clematis is commonly called clematis wilt - a stem rot/leaf spot disease caused by the fungus, Ascochyta clematidina, which mainly affects large‑flowered clematis hybrids. The symptoms are very defining and include sudden stem collapse, often just as the flower buds are about to open. Within just a few days the stems and its leaves turn black. Leaf veins often develop a purple coloration. One or more stems of the diseased plant may be affected or all aboveground parts of the plant can be killed down to just below the soil level.

Often, an affected plant will recover after a year or two.  Of course, prevention is the best medicine.  Here's how:

  1. Choose a favorable planting site with 6 or more hours of sun daily, rich, well‑drained soil with pH about 7.0, and be relatively open to ensure good air circulation.
  2. Select the most resistant plants. Species clematis and/or small‑flowered hybrids seem to be more resistant than large-flowered forms.
  3. Keep the clematis area free of plant debris on a year‑round basis. Take special care to avoid injury to stem and roots since the wilt fungus requires a wound to begin its deadly work.
  4. Avoid damaging the roots. Do not cultivate the soil around clematis plants and maintain good mulch.
  5. Give good culture. Maintain good growing conditions to keep all clematis plants as stress‑free as possible.
  6. In the event that plants become infected, cut diseased stems just below ground level and destroy them. Spray any remaining, healthy parts of the plant and surrounding soil with a protective fungicide such as myclobutanil.

Source

 


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

Great Gardening Magazines
Are Right Here!

 


Growing Groundcovers...
You can trim pachysandra and other low groundcovers by mowing them with your lawnmower.  Set the mowing height at around three to four inches. This will thicken the groundcover and help prevent weeds. Be sure to remove the clippings by gently raking. Boston ivy, English ivy, purple winter creeper, and cranberry cotoneaster all benefit from springtime trimming.

Source
 

It's Raining Worms!
If you've been outside and noticed small worms falling from the sky you're not alone. All over the metro, worms are falling from oak trees. These worms are actually the larvae of a gall midge. The larvae came from eggs that adult midges laid on the flower clusters of pin oak in early spring. Newly hatched larvae feed on the flower clusters and then move to the leaves as they unfurl. Eventually, the larvae drop to the ground in order to pupate. Adults emerge early the next spring to start the cycle all over again. The midges apparently cause no damage.

Source

Dealing With Dandelions...
We're getting lots of e-mail asking about weeds (especially dandelions) in lawns.  Keep in mind two things:

  • Dense healthy turf is the most effective weed control. Proper mowing, fertilization, and irrigation will go a long way in controlling weeds.
  • Fall is the best time to control weeds.

That being said, you can spot-apply broad spectrum herbicides to lawn weeds.  These can include traditional chemicals or alternatives like horticultural vinegar.  Either way, be careful where you spray.  Drifting herbicides are going to damage or kill the plants they touch.

 

Finally...
"This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze."

~ D. H. Lawrence, The Enkindled Spring

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.

© 1999-2005 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.