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material will be turned twice
more into bins 2 and 3. Over
time all this green waste will de-
compose and eventually be a
good soil amendment, rich in
nutrients and also teaming with
microbes; just the type of food all
plants need! Even though everything
in nature if left alone will decom-
pose, a good composting system
speeds up the process. To speed
the decomposition process, mix
materials (a nitrogen source
which is mostly green materials
and a carbon source which is
usually dried leaves), keep them
moist, and allow air to be availa-
ble to the decomposers
(microbes) that are working in
the pile to turn it into compost. So, give it a try! Your
plants will love the compost.
Even if you don’t put your green
waste into a compost pile, the
mulched material is wonderful to
spread around your trees and
bushes. It will do so much more
good in your yard than it will
ever do in the landfill. Oh, and
one more benefit, the exercise
you get doing this in the great
outdoors is at least as good as a
half hour workout at the gym;
better even, since you get your
dose of vitamin D and breathe in
air that is good for your lungs.
Being out in the great outdoors
does wonders for your mental
outlook and brain. And, it does
not involve a membership fee!
Find recycling and composting info at
www.keepkingwoodgreen.org.
Those who know me,
know that I am pretty serious
about recycling everything I can.
Some years ago some friends
and I started Keep Kingwood
Green with a mission of in-
creasing recycling opportunities
in the Lake Houston Area and
educating residents and stu-
dents about recycling. I am
lucky enough to be retired, so I
do have more time to pursue
my avocations (recycling and
gardening) than my younger
friends. One easy way to recy-
cle is to keep your green waste
out of the landfill. What is
green waste? Well, it is mostly
anything that grows in your
yard and plant scraps from the
kitchen that you no longer
want. Most people put all this
in a garbage bag and put it out
for the trash. Unless you live in
the City of Houston and have
green waste pick up from the
City Department of Solid
Waste, your discard will end up
in the Atascocita landfill. There
it will be buried forever and all
that fertilizer and water you
used to grow the grass, leaves,
and plants will be locked up
under that huge mound of dirt.
Some of it is recovered as me-
thane as it rots in the landfill,
but other than enlarging
“Atascocita Mountain”, it is
rendered useless. There is an alternative.
First, use a mulching lawnmow-
er on your grass. This is one of
the best things that you can do
for your lawn. The cut grass
is injected down into the grass
layer where it will compost.
Compost is the best fertilizer
we can give our grass. Within
a few weeks and after some
rain or irrigation this grass will
look better than it has ever
looked before. And, all that
great raw material is not lost
in the landfill. And, no, that
myth that this builds up thatch
is just that, a myth! Another alternative
to your other green waste is
to gather all your green clip-
pings, plants you’ve pulled out
of beds, and weeds into a pile
on a patch of grass in the back
yard, or your driveway. Then
use a rake to spread the plant
material into a thin layer.
Next use your mulching
lawnmower with its grass
catcher to mulch and pick up
much of the material. Empty
the material into a wheelbar-
row as you continue to pass
over the leftover plant materi-
al. After mulching most of the
material, rake what is left into
a few small piles. You can con-
tinue to pass over the material
until it is all picked up. Then it is off to a 3-
part compost bin where it
goes into bin 1. In a few days
as the microbes go into full
decomposition mode, they will
heat the pile up to about 150
degrees, killing weed seeds
and any pathogens that might
have been included with dis-
eased plants. Eventually the
How About that Green Waste By: Hal Opperman
LAKE HOUSTON
GARDENERS
A GARDEN STUDY GROUP OF THE LAKE
HOUSTON AREA
Happy Valentine’s Day! Vol. 21 Issue 6 February, 2019
This Month at LHG:
Backyard Compost-
ing
How About that
Green Waste
1
This Month at LHG 2
Monthly Gardening 2
The Veggie Patch 3
Oak Forest Roundup
Through the Garden
Gate
3
4
Treasurer’s Report 5
Hospitality Report 5
LHG Notes
5
www.lakehouston
gardeners.com
The Lake Houston Gardener
in Town Center if you need inspiration. Freezes- Continue to keep an eye on the weather and
stay informed on night time lows. Have frost cloth on hand
for light frosts. If the temperature drops below 32, double
wrap tender plants to ensure proper insulation. Avoid
using plastic against foliage, but it can be used as the second
exterior layer when covering plants. Remove plastic during
the day. TIP: Heavy duty clothespins or spare bricks can be
used to secure and weigh down cloths. Beds- Prune back perennials that are overgrown or have
frost damage. This allows for a fresh spring start. Wait to
cut back tropical plants until after the last frost, this in-
cludes hibiscus and bougainvillea. Add in annuals that are
not yet flowering for spring color in the form of poppies,
larkspur, hollyhocks, and delphiniums. Pruning- Most shrubs, trees, and roses can be pruned
now. Wait until after spring bloom cycles to prune spirea,
azaleas, redbuds, and oriental magnolias.
Planting- Strawberries can be planted now; hanging
baskets are an ideal way to grow the berries to avoid
fungus and insects attacking the fruit. Tomatoes can be
transplanted into pots that can be brought inside for
frosts and freezes; later on (after last frost) they can be
planted in larger pots or in the ground the end of the
month. Lettuce can be started from seed, for continual
harvesting. Set out fresh seeds every 2-3 weeks through
the cool season. Bluebonnets are available for trans-
planting to make a great spring show. It is past the
prime time to plant bluebonnet seeds. Pests- Keep an eye out for loopers and aphids on cool
season vegetables and annuals. Use the most organic
solution possible for treating these insects. Check for
scale insects on ornamentals such as camellias, hollies,
magnolias, and Japanese blueberries. Treat with horti-
cultural oil spray while it is still cool. Lawns- Apply pre-emergent to stop spring weeds such
as crabgrass, goose grass and dallisgrass before they
start. Corn gluten meal is an organic approach Birds- Lower purple martin houses , clean and repair as
necessary. Re-raise and position for martin
scouts. Keep 20 feet away from trees and buildings for
a clear flight pattern. Gold finches are feeding. Hang
thistle or nyjer seed socks for these cuties. Keep suet
feeders filled for hungry winter birds - their natural food
sources are slim right now. Visit Wild Birds Unlimited
February, 2019 Page 2
February LHG Meeting
Area Happenings has moved to the LHG web site www.lakehoustongrowers.org. Please check the
web site often to stay up-to-date on area garden related happenings.
Hal Opperman
Monthly Gardening Activities
The February LHG meeting will feature a presentation on Backyard Composting by Mr. Recycler,
Hal Opperman, himself. Hal grew up in the small Ohio community of New Bremen, where he
helped his father manage a truck farm (read that, he weeded and picked produce) when school did
not interfere. It was then that he decided to stay as far away from farming as possible as an adult.
Hal holds a BA degree from Ohio University. Until retirement he worked for ExxonMobil for 36
years. Over the years, Hal did realize that food that was grown in a home garden tasted so much better than anything purchased at a grocery store. So as time permitted, he got back into garden-
ing. After retirement, he got serious about gardening even though the Houston weather and in-
sects were a challenge and a big change from Ohio. He was always appalled at the waste of mate-
rials, including green waste. So he learned to compost and helped found Keep Kingwood Green.
He went so far as to take a course in composting that the City of Houston offers periodically to
earn the title of Master Composter. And that, ladies and gentlemen, he truly has become!
Belinda’s Dream, a sweetheart
of a rose!
By now, of course, you have consulted with our superb
planting guide, and you have your onion sets planted in
the ground. They should have had their first fertilization
with a liquid food such as MicroLife Ocean Harvest. Oh
and of course, you have gotten your bed ready to plant
Irish potatoes (that is if you do this). Seed potatoes (ones
that have not been treated with fungicides as eating pota-
toes have been), are available at places such as Knox
Feed. If you don’t have room for a traditional potato bed,
there are ways of growing potatoes that take up little real
estate. If you wish to have such information, ask the edi-
tor for a copy of the instructions.
Tomato seedlings have or should be planted very soon
into their own four-inch pot. Feed them with a liquid
fertilizer such as fish fertilizer every few days. When they
reach about five inches, transplant them into gallon pots.
Weather permitting, put them outside to harden off,
making sure to protect them during cool nights or windy
cold days. You may even have to move them inside. Of course, if you are not into all this work, buy the four-
inch tomato plants as soon as they become available in
the garden centers. Nothing good ever happens to them
the longer they sit on the plant shelves there. Take them
home, and transplant them into some good potting soil to
which you have added MicroLife 6-2-4. If there are multi-
ple plants in the pots you purchase, cut off the smaller
one, and put it into a container of rain water. It will form
roots quickly, at which point you can plant it into potting
soil in its own container. Do remove one of them! Speaking of rain water...during the rainy season
you should harvest some of this valuable free water for
use in watering potted plants and your compost piles.
Rain water does not contain all the chemicals which makes
our water supply safe for humans, but detrimental to
plants, or more specifically, the microbes that actually feed
our plants. Use some five gallon buckets to catch rainwa-
ter when it falls. Cover those buckets with lids to dis-
courage any mosquitoes from breeding in them. You can still plant many of the cool season crops,
if you get with it. Lettuces, mizuna, spinach, radishes, tur-
nips, beets can still be planted from seed. If you can find
new transplants in the garden centers (don’t buy those
that they have held over all winter), plant broccoli, col-
lards, cauliflower and cabbage. Cool season herbs like
parsley and cilantro can still be planted, but resist buying
those basil plants that are already showing up. It is still
too cool for those to do well. If you do not have room for a separate vegetable
garden, consider planting some attractive vegetables in
your flower beds. Pretty lettuces, mizuna (especially ‘Miz
America’), Swiss chard, kale, parsley and cilantro can give
your kitchen a healthy nutritional boost.
The Veggie Patch By: Hal Opperman
Page 3 February, 2019
Oak Forest Round-up Well, by conservative estimates, the students have
now planted over 1200 onion sets! This year the improved
Texas 1015Y variety by the name of Texas Legend was
planted. Great things are expected by May! Acorns are now planted in four inch containers.
Each student planted one, but extras were planted in case
of some non-germination. Several students did an experi-
ment by planting the same oak species acorns with one half
being planted right (pointy) side up, while the other half
were planted wrong end (flat end) up. Students will be
tracking the time it will take for each side to germinate and
grow. Will both plantings break ground at the same time?
Stay tuned! We have had very poor luck in growing spinach at
the gardens this year. Plants were being chewed to the
ground by some critter or another. Of course, most of us
thought the unthinkable, RATS! The district pest control
person was called in. He put the garden on lockdown for a
few days during which time he installed a series of ‘critter
cams’. He triumphantly shared a video of the culprit days
later. The thief was caught red-pawed (feeding day and night)
on camera. We had a very healthy, and I might add, health
conscious tree rat, a.k.a. squirrel, on our hands. Just goes to
show us once again, that all is not what it seems. We now
need to call in our natural tree rat controls, the pair of red-
shouldered hawks that are nesting nearby. They’ll have a hun-
gry brood to feed soon. The harvest bags have been full of luscious greens of
all sorts, as well as beautiful cauliflower, cabbage, turnips, beets
and carrots. The first kohlrabi was picked this week. That
was a real puzzle for the students, most of whom had never
encountered this before, much less eaten one. Speaking of
eating, we now have a fifth grade cooking club that meets after
school and cooks up simple and healthy meals. Recently on
the menu were jerk pork chops with honeyed carrots and
cowboy caviar for an appetizer. They are learning that healthy
can be tasty, too!
—————————————————————-
Ashley Lettuce Mizuna
P February, 2019 Page 4
Looking through the Garden Gate By: Jo Sanders
Before you read any further, please be aware that this article is completely
biased. It is the pride and joy of those of us who have worked in this garden
for a significant number of years. During this bleak, sunless and rainy winter, most landscapes appear quite
bland. Not so at the Oak Forest 5th grade garden. While most of us delight
in growing tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, nothing puts a sparkle in my
eye like walking into a garden of lush, healthy plants in every shade of green
possible. The robust leaves of cauliflower reveal a surprise of white, yellow,
green or purple heads. Beautiful carrots, beets and turnips are hidden un-
derground below striking foliage. Lettuce in various shades of green and
purple generously fill the perimeter holes in the concrete blocks. Fat sugar
snap peas dangle in the sunlight, enticing you to eat just one. Cabbages and
kohlrabi planted in the fall are now swollen to harvesting size. Broccoli buds,
the darling of nutritionists, sparkle in the morning dew. Large leaves of
collard greens bring back memories of slow-paced southern cooking. It is almost impossible to walk through this garden without quietly and cov-
ertly reaching for a leaf of mizuna, arugula or sorrel to munch on.
Not only are they tasty but the health benefits are substantial.
Frilly leaved kale and neon colored Swiss chard add to the texture
and color in the area. Think of this garden as just one giant
wholesome salad. (See www.ofegrowers.org for more photos.)
Lake Houston
Gardeners Meet on the 2nd Monday of
every month except
June—August
6:30 p.m. Good Shepherd Episcopal
Church 2929 Woodland Hills Drive
Kingwood, TX
77339
Check us out on the web!
lakehoustongardeners.org
?
Club Facilitator
Open Position
Sondra Alliston
& Sue Allen
Hospitality
512-496-0338
Barbara Adams Treasurer
3018 Evergreen Glade Ct.
Kingwood, TX 77339
281-359-8441 [email protected]
Cynthia Douglas Membership
281-361-2871
Gudrun Opperman
Newsletter Editor 281-360-8092
Moritza Day
Social Media & Publicity 713-206-0710
Anne Mullins
Social Media & Webmaster 832-264-1433
_______________________
2018-2019
LHG STEERING
COMMITTEE
February, 2019 Page 5
Treasurer’s Report: Barbara Adams
Beginning Balance 12/27/18 $ 2,101.63
Deposits:
Membership Deposits $ 40.00
Expenses:
Sondra Alliston – refreshment supplies $ 15.00
Ending Balance 01/27/19 $ 2,126.63
Welcome to Margaret Molloy who joined
LHG at the January meeting. A number of
new visitors were also present at the meet-
ing. We hope they will consider returning.
We had a wonderful crowd that attended
the January meeting. Ms. Foss gave a very
compelling talk about why we should plant
for the wild creatures that share their habi-
tat with us. Ms. Foss, understandably did not
wish to give us a copy of her presentation.
However, a number of you who attended
the meeting wanted to have a plant list for
some of the plants she mentioned during her
presentation. We now have two of Gudrun
Opperman’s parallel presentations on the
website at www.lakehoustongardeners.com.
If you wish to have a written list of some of
the native plants that will grow here, their
needs, and what wildlife benefits they offer, e
mail the editor and she will send you her list.
It very much mirrors Ms. Foss’ list, and then
some.
We still need to find a facilitator to run fu-
ture LHG meetings. Please consider taking
on this position. Organizing and leading the
meetings are the main requirements. Call on
any of the previous facilitators or Gudrun Op-
perman if you wish to have more information
about the position. You need not be present
for every meeting as several members of the
Steering Committee are willing to step in when
needed.
Some of the members of the Steering Commit-
tee met for lunch at 3 B’s on January 8. Pro-
grams for the rest of this meeting calendar were
confirmed. A bus trip to visit Peckerwood Gar-
dens is also in the works. It was felt that a tour
of members’ gardens (about four) would be fun.
Some gardens are confirmed, a few still need to
be nailed down. This tour would be for our
members only and would be in early April.
Jo Sanders is looking for gardens to feature in
her future “Through the Garden Gate” newslet-
ter articles. So, if you have a winter garden,
sunroom or special plant collection that could
be featured in the newsletter, please contact her
at: [email protected]. Also if you have an
interesting spring or summer garden, let her
know. This is not a beauty contest, but rather
about sharing members’ gardens to give inspira-
tion or ideas to other gardeners in our group.
Hospitality Report: Sondra Alliston & Sue Allen
On tap for bringing refreshments to the February meeting are, Gudrun Opperman, Theresa
Miller and Anne Mitchell. Many thanks to Judy Herman, Jane Marvin, and Susan Nittka for
providing the goodies at the January meeting. As always, if you have a situation arise where
you cannot fulfill your commitment, just call Sondra or Sue as soon as possible.
Thank you to all who came to the rescue to fill the slots that still remained on the refreshment
calendar as of the January meeting. We are happy to report that all the slots are now filled.
LHG Roundup
