Master Gardener Association of Grayson County

The Gardening Thymes Spring 2017

Note from the President… It’s the

8th

annual

Plant Fair

& Spring Fling !!!

Saturday, May 6th

, 2017

Derby Day!

8 a.m. - 2 p.m. CDT

At the Grayson County

Middle School on Mill St. (Hwy 62)

Leitchfield, KY

Plants of all types from area vendors

and the Master Gardeners

Arts & Crafts Vendors

Free mini-gardening seminars

Garden Gate Store

Free Children’s Activity Tent

Vendors Wanted We are taking vendor applications for the

Plant Fair! If you would like to join us for this fun-filled day,

please contact us through our Facebook page or

call the Extension Office at 270-259-3492 for

more information.

It is time to think about Spring Gardening.

Aside from poring over seed catalogues and

ordering all of your favorite seeds, bulbs and

plants, plus cleaning and preparing your

garden tools, here are a few more ideas you

may want to try.

Try forcing some blooms to bring inside.

Forsythia, Crabapple and Paper Whites are

easy to force and will brighten up any room in

your home.

Plant some bulbs in pots for an early spring

show. Tulips, Daffodils and Hyacinths have

early blooming varieties.

Get early vegetable seeds growing in cold

frames, greenhouses or on a bright, sunny

windowsill.

The choices are limitless. Whatever you do,

enjoy the spring!

Happy Spring Gardening!

Martha Higgs,

President MGAGC

There is no season such delight can bring

as summer, autumn, winter and then spring.”— William Browne

University of Kentucky

College of Agriculture,

Food and Environment

Cooperative Extension Service

April:

Finish cleaning up and preparing the garden for planting. Add a 1” layer of compost over the top.

Keep weeds under control now to save work later.

Plant beets, carrots, corn, peas, potatoes, spinach, turnips and leafy greens.

Put up a trellis for tall peas.

Set out transplants of broccoli, cauliflower, collards and onions.

Perennials can be dug up, divided, and replanted.

Plant cool-season transplants of pansies, primroses, forget-me-nots, foxglove and violas.

Sow sweet peas, bachelor's buttons, and larkspur seeds.

To maintain a pleasant shape, trim forsythias after they have bloomed.

May:

Set out transplants of eggplant, melons, peppers, squash, and tomatoes around mid-month.

Set out herb transplants.

Be prepared to cover tender transplants, if needed.

Sow beans, cucumbers, corn, okra and squash seeds mid-month, plus more leafy greens.

For easy to grow, colorful plants, sow cosmos, marigold, sunflower and zinnia seeds.

Top dress roses with an inch layer of compost.

To maintain garden color, plant annuals around the spring bulbs that have finished blooming.

Mulching will not only help to conserve moisture, but will also help inhibit some weed growth.

June:

Plant sweet potato slips early June. Install cages or supports for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant.

Plant additional rows of beans, corn and cucumbers.

Remove unproductive spring crops and replace with okra or summer squash.

To keep chrysanthemums bushy, every 2 weeks for 5-6 weeks, pinch back a ½”-1” from each

growing tip.

Buy seeds for your fall garden.

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upcoming workshops and seminars by “liking” us on Facebook. Master Gardener Association of Grayson County Kentucky

Monthly Garden Tips !

These tips are based on our average frost dates. Please use them as a general guideline. Our weather can

vary greatly not only from year to year, but also from different areas of our zone in Kentucky. Check

weather forecasting sources regularly for extended outlooks.

Time to Think about Pruning

By Sharon Flynn, Kentucky Master Gardener

It’s that time of year again. Though it’s cold here it appears that spring is on the way. In my yard, things

are still a mess, and a good clean-up is in order. In addition to making sure my pruning saw, hand pruners

and loppers are clean (cleaning them in a mix of bleach and water helps prevent spread of disease), I also

want them to be sharp. Once I have contacted my favorite sharpener I’m ready to get started. Many

people sharpen before they put their tools away for winter, and it is usually easier to find someone who

has time to do it then, but that requires organization. To be honest, pruning is not my favorite chore in the

garden, because I’m always afraid I’ll make a mistake. So, I read up on when and how to prune perennial

plants, landscape shrubs and trees and fruit trees before I start work. To keep it simple, I’m including

some links below that go into more detail than possible in a short column, but I want to talk about a few of

my favorite things that require pruning.year. Prune forsythia after it blooms.

Shrubs that flower after June first, should be pruned in the winter or spring before new growth begins. Late

flowering trees (those that bloom after June first) should also be pruned before new growth begins. I

include Crepe Myrtle in this group of late flowering shrubs and trees. Some folks prefer to prune them in

the fall after they have bloomed but they can also be pruned early in spring. Since they bloom on new

wood, timing of pruning is really important if you don’t want to wait another year for it to bloom. Rose of

Sharon should be pruned in early spring. Links below are to University of Kentucky Extension Service

publications that have lists of trees and shrubs and when to prune.

Clematis provides an exception as those that bloom in summer resent too much pruning and should just

be shaped up. Some bloom in early summer and again in late summer. It is important not to prune this

type until both blooms have taken place and then be gentle. There is a late blooming species clematis,

Sweet Autumn Clematis, that has small white flowers growing on a really long vine. This clematis can be

cut back within a foot or so of the ground after bloom has finished and it will return with vigor the following

year. It is the only clematis that will welcome that kind of pruning. The others will be insulted and may not

return again. In the link below to another University of Kentucky publication, spring pruning of roses is

discussed.

These links provide useful details and some photos:

Pruning Landscape Shrubs: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ho/ho59/ho59.pdf

Pruning Landscape trees: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ho/ho45/ho45.htm

Pruning Fruit Trees: http://kentuckyhomegardens.blogspot.com/2010/04/pruning-fruit-trees.html

Pruning Roses: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/id/id118/id118.pdf page 8.

Trees and shrubs that flower before early June, should be

pruned immediately after flowering. Lilacs are a good

example of a flowering shrub that sets buds immediately

after flowering. If you missed it last year wait until it

blooms this year, then go for it. It will thank you with even

more blooms next year. Prune forsythia after it blooms.

Self-Seeding Perennials & Annuals By Robin Mundy, Kentucky Master Gardener

Perennials are a great way to add flowers to your garden, without having to replant every year. Self-seeding perennials take it to the next level, multiplying each year by both growing from the roots and starting new plants from fallen seeds that germinate. It generally takes two or three years to get established, but once established, they will thrive for years. As with any planting bed, some site preparation is needed. Be sure the bed location has good drainage and receives the proper amount of sun or shade by checking the back of the seed packets or the plant tags. Remove as many weeds as possible and till in some compost or aged manure. Sow seeds or set transplants. Seed beds will need to be kept moist until seeds germinate. Water transplants regularly to maintain moisture until the plants are settled in. Mulch around the plants in late fall after the seeds have fallen, but before the ground freezes to protect the roots. Remove the mulch in early spring.

To fill in the flower bed while the perennials settle in, you might add a few annual bedding plants. Alyssum, California Poppy, Candytuft, Coreopsis, Flax, Forget-Me-Nots, Gloriosa Daisy, Larkspur, Love-in-a-Mist, Moss Rose, Nasturtium, Sunflower and Sweet Pea are all self-seeding annuals. Personally, I don’t think you can ever have too many flowers, but at some point you may find you have plenty of plants to relocate to another spot or to share, either by dividing the roots or digging up baby plants. It’s a win-win situation either way….free plants for you or a warm fuzzy feeling from sharing.

Grayson County Extension Service (270) 259-3492

123 Commerce Dr. Fax: (270) 259-0291

Leitchfield KY 42754 graysonext.org

Common self-seeding perennials include Bellflower, Butterfly Weed, Columbine, Hellebore, Phlox, Purple Coneflower, Sweet William and Verbena. Bachelor Buttons (Centaurea cyanus) is not considered a perennial in our zone, however it is self-seeding. There is a perennial Bachelor Buttons (Centaurea Montana) which does grow in zones 2-9. You can buy individual potted plants, or packages of perennial wildflower seeds for either sun or shade. Keep in mind that some of these plants can be very prolific, resulting in a need to do additional deadheading to keep the plants from taking over the garden. If you find you have a plant that grows too aggressively for your liking, just remove it from the garden.

Whitney Carman

Agriculture & Natural Resources Agent Grayson County Cooperative Extension Service

Basic Low-Maintenance Lawn Care

Adapted & Summarized from UK Pub ID-154 “Low-Maintenance Lawn Care, Stressing Pest Avoidance and Organic Inputs” Paul Vincelli, David Williams, A. J. Powell, and Dan Potter, Departments of Plant Pathology, Agronomy, and Entomology

Green lawns are valuable for many reasons, such as controlling soil erosion, absorbing sound, improving air quality by reducing dust and reducing air temperature fluctuations. Most of us are so busy these days, that we don’t have the desire to spend a lot of time on yard work. However, it is possible to have a nice looking low maintenance yard with minimum effort. Making more suitable choices and following an easy schedule will give you an easily maintained yard.

Choose a cool-season grass. Tall fescue is a great choice because it will grow in clay soil, in medium shade to full sun. It is drought tolerant and holds up well to foot traffic and children playing. Broadcasting seed can be done anytime the soil is not frozen.

Take a soil sample to your County Extension Office for testing and your local agent will recommend the nutrients your lawn needs. To maintain a relatively good quality turf with minimum weeds, nitrogen is one nutrient that is needed every year. Overall, for stronger and thicker roots, the best times of year to apply fertilizers are fall and early winter, which in turn makes it easier for the grass to survive disease and stress during the summer. Apply 1.0 to 1.5 pounds of actual nitrogen per thousand square feet of lawn once or twice during the period from mid October through late December. If the results of your soil test indicate needing phosphorous or potassium apply a 19-19-19 fertilizer. An organic fertilizer with 6% nitrogen would be applied at the rate of 17# of fertilizer per thousand square feet of lawn. Be cautious in applying fertilizer to avoid contaminating ground water, or allowing run-off to flow into a sewer drain or just before a heavy rain.

Mowing when the grass is three inches tall results in a healthier grass with deeper roots and less weed competition. Most of all, it won’t need to be mowed as often. Try to avoid mowing under extreme heat or drought conditions. Leave the grass clipping behind when mowing to decompose and fertilize. If there is an abundance of clippings that need to be removed, spread thinly around established plants to help retain moisture and diminish weed growth.

Following these suggestions for a low maintenance yard also means your lawn won’t need to be watered as often, and especially during the summer heat when they will go dormant if not watered. If there is no rain for several weeks though, you may need to water deeply on an early morning or late evening.

Apply a pre-emergence herbicide for crabgrass prior to mid-April. An organic option would be corn gluten meal, but it completely wipes out all of the benefits of following the suggestions above if applied in the spring. It’s best applied in the fall.

Very few diseases affect low-maintenance lawns enough to be noticeable.

Tall fescue is again the winner for a low maintenance lawn in not being as desirable to grubs and showing minimal visible damage. Planting peonies as an organic method of companion planting, which may attract beneficial Tiphia wasps that parasitize Japanese beetle grubs, would be worth trying for grub control. Check synthetic insecticide ingredients for Halofenozide or Imidacloprid. Both ingredients are highly effective when used preventively between June 15 and July 15. Please note, if moles only ate grubs, they would eat and move on. Unfortunately, they also eat earthworms. So if you have moles, they are eating all of your little helpers that help aerate and amend your soil. Mole traps are the best method of control.

For further information and explanations, please refer to UK Publication ID-154, available on the World Wide Web at www.ca.uky.edu.

To file a complaint of discrimination, contact Tim West,

UK College of Agriculture, 859-257-3879;

Terry Allen or Patty Bender, UK Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity,

859-257-8927; or the USDA, Director Office of Civil Rights,

Room 326-W Whitten Bldg. 14th & Independence Ave. SW Washington, DC 20250-9410

(202-720-5964).

Save the Date !!! ______________________________________________

April 26, 2017, Wednesday – Garden Toolbox Series, Plant Propagation Choose 1 pm or 5 pm class. Please call 270-259-3492 to pre-register. Classes held at the Grayson County Extension Office, 123 Commerce Drive, Leitchfield, KY. Please use the West entrance in the back of the building. (Some classes in the Garden Toolbox Series may require a small fee of $5 for take home goodies.) May 6, 2017, Saturday - Master Gardeners 8th Annual Plant Fair and Spring Fling 8am to 2pm in the front parking lot of the Grayson County Middle School on Highway 62. Lots of plants for sale from area nurseries and the Master Gardeners. Free education sessions, gardening projects for children, crafts from various vendors, plus garden-related merchandise in the Master Gardener Garden Gate Store. May 31, 2017, Wednesday – Garden Toolbox Series, Common Plant Diseases in The Garden Choose 1 pm or 5 pm class. Please call 270-259-3492 to pre-register. Classes held at the Grayson County Extension Office, 123 Commerce Drive, Leitchfield, KY. Please use the West entrance in the back of the building. (Some classes in the Garden Toolbox Series may require a small fee of $5 for take home goodies.) June 17, 2016, Saturday - Children’s Garden Workshop 1pm to 3pm Open to children in grades K-5. Cost is $7 for first child in family, and $5 each for additional children in the family. Space is limited. Pre-registration and payment are required. An adult or parent must accompany children. Workshop held at the Grayson County Extension Office, 123 Commerce Drive, Leitchfield, KY. Please use the West entrance in the back of the building.

For more information contact the Grayson County Extension Office at 270-259-3492,

Or check us out on facebook: Master Gardeners of Grayson County Kentucky

Horticulture or horticulture-related field Scholarship!

Master Gardener Association of Grayson County is offering a scholarship to a Grayson County higher

education student studying horticulture or a related field for the 2017/18 school year.

If you know of a student who would be interested, please pass

along this information.

Deadline for submission: April 14, 2017 by 3:00 p.m.

Contact the Grayson County Extension Office at 270-259-3492

or our Facebook page for more information.