Lawn and Garden Solutions with Carl

Rain or no rain?

2009-05-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

Did it rain at your house this past week? We received .03 inches, heavy mist, of moisture. I expected a good rain this past weekend to help my garden along. Instead I was watering with a jacket on in the mist that fell yesterday. My onions and potatoes were my biggest concern. If onions get dry they will stop growing and the soil will get hard around them. This stress may cause them to bloom and then all growth may stop. When potatoes start blooming they are putting on baby potatoes. This is a critical time for both garden vegetables. Fertilizing my onions and potatoes will be next on my list, as soon as the soil is dry enough walk on without tracking it up. I will then water the fertilizer in, never fertilize dry plants. I plan to follow up with a light mulch of year old grass clippings to help keep the soil consistently moist and cool.
I plan to spray my fruit trees this weekend and refresh my jugs with the solution to attract coddling moths. My jugs are filling up with insects. I will be trimming my dwarf lilac also, just enoughto remove the old blooms. I'm tired of looking at that old foliage on my tulips and daffodils, the foliage is turning yellow so I can cut it off at ground level.
If you have any questions or thoughts about gardening and landscaping post them and we will discuss them.

Carl

2009-05-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

Bernie,
I will learn how all of this, blogs, work soon. Peaches can have damage from hail, we talked some about that this morning on the air. The other possibility can be from an insect sting. These spots are usually cosmetic and do not effect the fruit itself.My best guess the fruit drop is caused by stress or natural fruit drop by the tree ridding itself of fruit it cannot support. I can't bring myself to thin my peaches as much as I should to grow those great big peaches you buy at the store. In effect the tree is going for survival, thinning even more peaches would be a good idea. Thin until you have 6" between fruit, if you can bring yourself to do it.

Carl

Now its summer

2009-05-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Just as we all expected we have gone from Spring weather to Summer temperatures in just a few days. I tilled part of the garden last weekend and it turned to hard balls. I re-tilled this past Thursday and it worked up pretty good this time. We are now ready to plant tomatoes and peppers along with some squash and cucumbers. Now is an important time for weeding in the garden. Get them while they are small. I have hoed some of the garden and plan to do some more Saturday. I will also fertilize my onions. Fertilizing onions and keeping them watered will help us grow the big nice keeping onions we will enjoy next winter.
I'm also trimming some shrubs now. Our mugo pine will get trimmed this weekend along with a globe blue spruce we have. My dwarf lilac has finished blooming so it will be trimmed soon.
We have sure enjoyed bringing Iris and Peonies in the house this past week. They make and nice display in a vase adding spring color and fragrance to a room.
I'm also anticipating my Kousa Dogwoods coming into bloom in a week or so. They look to be covered with buds so they should make a great display.
I'll let you know how things go with all of these projects.

My garden is still to wet to work.

2009-05-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

I like rain as much as the next guy but this is getting a little much. Just as my garden dries out enough to till, it rains again. I know that waiting is the right thing to do but sometimes I think I need to go ahead and plant before it gets to late. I know that that last statement is not true. Here are a few rules to follow when working in any bed or garden. Never work the soil when it is gummy. Make a ball out of a hand full of your garden or flower bed soil. See if you can break it apart easily. If it crumbles get to tilling if it holds together and resist breaking apart it is to wet, stay out of the garden. Planting late is not all bad. Many flowers and vegetables love warm soils. Planting later instead of earlier often results in harvest at about the same time. Planting in warm soils allows the plants to take right off instead of just sitting there for a week or two before it is warm enough to start growing. I guess I'll wait a few more days before tilling and planting, again.
I will be at Grimm's Gardens next Saturday from 9:00 until 11:00, stop by and say Hi or bring your questions right to me. Hope to see you there.

New post coming

2009-05-12T05:09:00.000-07:00

Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog. I will soon be posting information about your Lawn and Garden needs. If you have a question pertaining to your Lawn, or Garden, please post it here, and I will consider making it one of my weekly posts on the blog.

2009-05-07T14:48:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung and it seems somedays already feel like summer. The wet weather we have endured this past month looks to be letting up. I have several items on my to do list for my lawn and garden.

Weed garden, this needs done before the weeds get ahead of me.

Trim Forsythia and Honeysuckle, they have bloomed and are ready for a trim job. I will try to cut them back about 1/3rd of their over all size to encourage new growth.

Spray fruit trees, this needs to become a habit every 10 days or so.

Keep up with the mowing, by keeping up with the mowing and never removing more than 1 to 2" of the grass at one cutting I can expect my lawn to stay greener and have fewer disease problems in wet weather.

Sounds like I need to get to work.