Ask a Master Gardener
Winter Garden Maintenance
Cooler temperatures are finally here and with those cooler temperatures we have some decisions on the horizon to make. Historically, gardeners of both flowers and vegetables have cleaned up their gardens at the end of the season, removing all the dead plants, stalks, and leaves etc. But we are learning that, while this strategy may make our garden spaces look nice, we may unintentionally be doing damage to our local insect population. And with declining pollinator populations, we need to help them...
Bringing Plants Indoors
At some point summer temperatures are going to end…at least we think so. At that point we’ll need to bring our summer tropicals indoors, or at least those plants we want to save until next year. Hibiscus is one I think of. There are both tropical and hardy versions of hibiscus. The hardy ones are usually good outdoors over the winter, but if you want to save those tropical ones, they will need to spend the winter in your garage or someplace appropriate.
To understand which plants need to come...
Crop Rotation and Cover Crops
Right now, it seems like vegetable garden season will go on forever. But we know eventually, the cold weather will show up and put an end to our garden. Since we know it’s going to happen, let’s talk about a couple of things that often get overlooked that could help us out next year, crop rotation and cover crops.
If you are like me, you have your favorite garden layout. The tomatoes go here, and the cucumbers go over there, and green beans back there, and then the peppers are right here etc....
Acorns
Finally, we’ve got that chill in the air that lets us know fall is here. With the cooling temperatures, there will be a lot of changes in our landscapes. One of those changes is our oaks are going to begin dropping acorns soon. So, let’s talk a little bit about our nut producing oaks.
The story of the acorn begins in the spring when the oak trees begin to flower. Yes, oak trees flower. Also, oak trees are what we call monoecious which means that a single oak tree contains both male and female...
Making New Plans for Next Year's Garden
As the summer garden season is winding down, it’s time to reflect a bit on what went well, and what didn’t go so well in the garden this year. For us at our Seed to Supper Farm, we had quite a few issues that we are going to be working on correcting for next year. Since you likely had some of the same issues, let’s talk about some of those.
First up, we had a problem with irrigation. Actually no, it wasn’t irrigation, we have that pretty much under control. The issue was poor drainage. One thing...
Fall soil Testing
Even though the summer garden season is winding down, there’s still a lot going on. In addition to caring for our plants, many of us are thinking about what we can do differently next year since likely some of our plans worked out and maybe others didn’t work out so well. As we contemplate what we are going to plant next year and where, don’t forget about your soil. After a season of growing, it’s a good time to take a look at the nutrients in your soil. While there are a variety of test kits available...
Planting Bulbs
I’m not sure why I like planting bulbs so much. Maybe there are several reasons. Such as, planting bulbs isn’t difficult, and there is a special bulb planting tool that makes it very easy. All you need to do is push it down into the soil, lift it out, drop in a bulb, replace the soil. Plus, bulbs give you a little surprise to look forward to in the spring. Oftentimes after you forgot planting bulbs, you have a pleasant surprise in the spring when you see those green leaves start to poke up out...
Extending the Growing Season with Cold Frames
Here we are in October. How did that happen? Wasn’t it just a few days ago we were melting in the heat?
This is the time of year gardeners start thinking about that first freeze of the fall season. The average first freeze date is typically around Nov 15th, but the last couple of years our first freeze has been earlier. Last year our first freeze was on October 30th but the year before it was October 18th. All this to say, that first freeze of the season could be right around the corner.
Why...
Fall Web Worms
Fall webworms are always interesting in that some years it seems like they are everywhere and other years they are pretty sparse. Fortunately, this year seems like one of the sparse years, but none of that matters if you have them in your trees. Since there are certain areas of town that seem to be getting hit pretty hard with fall webworms, let’s talk about what they are and what you can do about them.
Like a lot of insects that we call worms, they are not worms at all, but instead are caterpillars...
Pansies - The Perfect Winter Flower
Since it’s now officially fall, we know what that means…it means that our summer annuals are not going to be with us much longer. The way many gardeners deal with this potentially depressing information is to get ready to plant pansies.
Since pansies are such a popular garden plant, there are about 300 different varieties of these flowers. While your favorite garden center probably won’t have 300 varieties of pansies for you to choose from, they will have a great selection soon, if not already.
Why...