Posted on 04/11/2008 11:49:46 AM PDT by Gabz
April is a debutante’s ball for green and growing things! Young foliage garbs the trees in gauzy, pastel gowns of gold and green and russet, like a watercolor by an old master. Their subtle color is a poignant reminder and a future foretaste of the fall’s bold leaves of orange and yellow and rust. The wild azaleas will be blooming soon, their delicate apple blossom pink petals shining through here and there and their honey sweet fragrance filling the air. The violets, from the large purple ones with heart shaped leaves to the tiny, almost invisible white ones with lance shaped leaves, will be peeping through last year’s grass and fallen leaves. Miniature wild iris will be popping up in patches, ankle high splashes of lavender to bright blue marked with splotches of orange and white. The pine trees will be candling and shedding pollen everywhere, coating everything in yellow dust- as if some disgruntled fairy godmother, fed up with tedious sprinkling, pitched a giant hissy fit and upended her entire bag of magic dust all at once.
Easter falls during the middle of April this year. Things like potatoes and peas and cabbage should have already been planted and hopefully are doing well. While corn can usually be planted around the first of April, mid-April is time to plant the mid season stuff-tomatoes, peppers, cukes, squash, green beans. Keep a close eye on the weather, but there isn’t supposed to be any frost after Easter. Hopefully, the weather will be much better for gardening this year than it has been for the last several years.
Speaking of better, there are some new varieties of tomatoes on the market that are resistant to Tomato Spotted Wilt. Resistant is not the same thing as immune! TSW is the virus that causes tomato plants (along with many other vegetables and flowers) to die or be stunted. If the tomato plants survive, the tomatoes are small, mottled in color, and the taste is off. Christa is one of the new varieties-a nice round, red, juicy tomato that looks and tastes very good. When buying tomato plants, look for the letters after the variety name. Just like the letters after a doctor’s name, they all mean something. The more letters after a tomato name, the more diseases that variety is resistant to. F means the plant is resistant to fusarium wilt, V is for verticullum, N is for root knot nematode disease, T is for tobacco mosaic virus. TSW is for tomato spotted wilt. Most older varieties don’t have many letters, but generally the newer hybrids have lots. When buying tomato plants, also keep in mind that determinate means that variety has one big crop and it’s mostly done. Indeterminate means the plant will bear over a long season.
Fertilizing is an important part of having a great garden. Everyone used to open up their rows, put the fertilizer in, cover the rows back up, and plant on top of the fertilizer. That method doesn’t work anymore. Whether the composition of the fertilizer has changed, or whether it’s due to the weather being so hot and cold back and forth, or a combination of the two, who knows? The fertilizer rises to the top now, and it will burn the roots off your plants. It seems the best way to fertilize now is to go ahead and plant your plants, then come back and side dress. Side dress simply means to come out about eight inches away from your plants and spread fertilizer down the row. It needs to be worked in a little with your hoe.
Tunnels in your yard driving you crazy? The simple answer used to be moles. Moles eat crickets and grubs, so you could put out chemicals to kill the insects and the moles would go away because they didn’t have anything to eat. Back up just a minute. Moles eat crickets and grubs. We all know what crickets are, but did you ever think about what a grub is—besides an ugly piece of fish bait? Most grubs are the larval (immature) stage of some kind of beetle. Japanese beetles, for instance. Why do we expend so much effort to get rid of one of the few things that can control Japanese beetles? The answer, of course, is because we like smooth, flat lawns. Nice lawns look much better and are definitely easier to mow. There aren’t many moles anymore. So, why, you ask, are there still tunnels in my beautiful yard and garden?
The answer is voles. Sounds like a mole, tunnels like a mole. So, what is the difference? Moles are little, gray, blind creatures with webbed feet that seldom come out of their tunnels. Voles look more like hamsters. Light brown, they have eyes, clawed feet, and a short little tail. Oh, and voles eat plant roots and bulbs. Ever notice a tunnel right down the middle of one of your garden rows? Thank a vole. Southern Pine Voles like to live around the base or stump of—you guessed it—pine trees. Unlike moles, voles will come out of their tunnels and run around. They’re usually active at night or in the early morning, and they’re about the size of a mouse, so even if you saw one you’d probably think it was just a mouse. If you’ve noticed little volcano looking eruptions of dirt somewhere along the length of the tunnels in your yard, chances are you have a vole instead of a mole. Voles are a nuisance here, but farther toward the mountains, they can be serious pests because they can destroy an orchard in a hurry. They like to eat the bark off fruit trees at ground level, and can girdle and kill a tree in no time. They tend to live in colonies, so they can become major pests very quickly. Voles are hard to trap, but the state has okayed a rat poison called Rozol to kill them.
We’ve already had our bout, and not even 2 weeks of rain has rid us of all the pine pollen! Better than it was, tho!
Sorry, Red! Our temps are supposed to dip into the mid 40’s Mon and Tues night. You might want to cover your figs. They’ll take right much cold without damage, but 15 and 20 are pushing it.
I can’t speak for it doing anything about squirrels because, to be honest, I haven’t seen a squirrel on our property in the 5 years we’ve lived here.
The hot pepper mixes do seem to keep the critters away without hurting the plants themselves.
We can’t stand the taste of Tabasco sauce and only buy it put into the mixes from Baker’s book. We figure he has a reason for naming that brand because he generally suggests using dollar store genrics for many of his other ingredients.
**Miracle-Gro (approx 8 Ounces) once per week...**
That’s fine—add a tablespoon of Epsom salt per gallon of water. You can mix it with the miracle gro. Most plants really like it, esp geraniums and roses.
LOL!!!!
OOPS, I hit post too soon, didn’t I?
SEEDS!!!!!!!!
Jax has already sorted out the seeds and determined which are hers and which are mine. I get the veggies and herbs, she gets the flowers!
There was also a fabulously inspirational book and some “make a kid happy” stuff. Diana is a wonderful friend.
LOL!!!!!
That’s why I posted this as April of 2006 — last year Easter was the beginning of April and this year it was in March!
I can believe just how heavy the fog was because one of our local channels showed footage from their web cam by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Could not make out a shape or see any movement at all. Scary! But, of course, the plants loved all the moisture.
I think my “Brown Turkey” fig is not going to make it. It has yet to bud out like the “Celestial” and “Black Jack” figs. Those both have buds every where with tiny leaves developing. I will keep watering it and cross my fingers.
LOL!!!! My husband did construction before he went IT!!! He finds the gardening relaxing (except for cutting the grass)
I can’t wait. My vegetable garden is going to be HUGE this year.
OK - I will let my politics invade my gardening......not something I do often.
I will not buy or use any Scott’s/Miracle-Gro products. Scott’s instituted a policy to refuse to hire anyone who smokes tobacco and has gone so far as to fire smokers who did not quit.
I fully support the right of a private employer to set their own criteria for hiring, however I fully support my right to choose not to purchase their products.
I can only imagine how bad it was down by the CBBT. We live practically smack dab in the middle of northern Accomack Cty when looking east to west and we were totally socked in yesterday morning.
But you’re right, the moisture is definitly welcome.
LOL!!! What’s your definition of “HUGE”????
Congrats on the munchkin, Gabz! You’d be apalled at how many kids think food comes out of the backroom at the grocery store.
Thanks again, Gabz! I told you—I can write and grow things—I never said I was computer savvy! LOL
Huge means needing a wheelbarrow to collect my day’s clippin’ :o)
Have to agree with you on the Scotts prducts—not because I know a thing about their policies, but because I just don’t like their lawn products. Most of their stuff has a high nitrogen content—works great up north or out west—it’s death on centipede grass.
I usually recommend MG for liquid fert, simply because that’s waht we carry. Don’t care much for their potting medium either, esp with the fert added. We use Metro 360 in the greenhouse—it will spoil you quick!
There are Pine trees in Santa Cruz County?
Just kidding EG...
**Brown Turkey” fig is not going to make it.**
Wonder how a cutting would fare in teh mail? Let me know if you don’t see signs of life soon and we’ll find out!
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