Hooray. August is finally gone and it’s now time to start thinking about September gardening chores. Not that the hot and dry days are gone – we’ll probably be experiencing more of them during this month. But the good news is that we can start planting some vegetables.
Planting summer vegetables, taking care of parched perennial and annual flowers, paying special attention to your lawn and taking care of yourself during the stifling July heat should leave you with plenty to do.
On a warm and dark summer night, cicadas emerging from their year-long underground foraging run straight into the mouths of hungry copperheads. Yes, copperheads – one of the three most common venomous snakes along the Gulf Coast.
Thankfully the large numbers of cicadas aren’t coming to the Gulf Coast. The only thing we get here is the annual or “dog-day cicadas,” called that because of their emergence every year during the dog days of summer, although all cicadas, whether Brood or Dog-day, emerge in the summer.
Cicadas are emerging from their almost two-decade sleep and cicada killers will not be far behind. Compared to most insects in North America, the cicada killer is gigantic. The body can be two inches long, and the extended wingspan three to four inches long. It can be terrifying as it zips around the yard, dipping this way and that, looking for its prey, strongly resembling a giant, angry hornet.
Our spring vegetable garden is looking pretty good right now. Tomatoes are filling out, beans have set blossoms and are starting to produce…
pH is an abbreviation for “power of hydrogen” where “p” is short for the German word for power (potenz), and H is the element symbol for hydrogen. Why a Danish scientist used a German word is Greek to me, but he was a scientist, and I’m not, so I’ll just go with the flow. The H is capitalized because it is standard to capitalize element symbols. So now you understand about as much as I do.
Good healthy plants can fend off disease and destructive insects. The absence of these microorganisms and larger organisms such as earthworms, result in compacted, lifeless soil. Lifeless soil, of course, cannot sustain life.
Your lawn loves low nitrogen (N), low phosphorus (P), and low potassium (K) fertilizer. It also likes organic fertilizer or urea-based fertilizers, not nitrate-based fertilizers. Why? Well, let’s look at the nature of lawns, especially warm-season grasses like St. Augustine, Bermuda, and Zoysia.
Winter Storm Uri is over, but residents of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi are coping with damage to their landscapes. Everything looks terrible, and our first inclination is to go out and water and fertilize.
A lot of sagos and palms won’t make it after the freeze. Both are tropical or semi-tropical plants. Some sagos and palms can withstand freezes down to 20 F, and there are a few varieties of palms that can withstand 10 F.
It’s February, and just one more month until spring here on the Gulf Coast. Although it hasn’t been a very cold winter, most of us gardeners are excited to plant our tomatoes come the first week in March (I hope), as well as enjoy all our spring-bloomers that we planted in the fall.
It might sound a little like science fiction, but allelopathic plants can kill or suppress the growth of your garden vegetation.
Soil scientists now realize that tilling interferes with the soil’s complicated relationship and the micro-organisms that keep the ground healthy and productive. Tilling also compacts the soil, brings long-dormant weed seeds to the surface sale, and adds to erosion.
Although we expect this winter to be dryer and warmer than usual, this doesn’t preclude an occasional freeze.
La Nina is messing with our weather again. The National Weather Service reports above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation in our area and most of the U.S. for November, December and January. Being forewarned is being forearmed. You might want to consider installing drip irrigation for your vegetables and your ornamental
If you want to get rid of those weeds always coming up in your garden – solarize. Desperately desiring to drastically cut down…
Summer heat is arriving with its usual ferocity. Some plants may be suffering from it– as well as some of us. That’s no reason to stop our favorite pastime. Here are some helpful hints to prepare for the coming dog days.
As a legume, they put a considerable supply of nitrogen back into the soil. That makes these peas an excellent rotation crop to plant between spring and fall gardens. Drought-resistance and low water requirements make it an ideal crop for our hot Gulf Coast summers.
Just about every vegetable gardener along the Gulf Coast has tomatoes coming into fruition in April. Here are some helpful hints for you….
Our job is not only to manage our gardens but to manage the organisms that benefit our gardens. Mass and indiscriminate spraying of pesticides kill not only the ubiquitous stink bugs but also bees, ladybugs, praying mantids, and other beneficial insect predators.
Bayer now controls the seed for 55 percent of the lettuce, 75% of the tomatoes, and 85 percent of the peppers in U.S. groceries. The company also holds a significant portion of the markets on beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, and peas. Interesting food for thought, not so interesting for our bodies and health.
All these creatures and entities are involved in the tremendous work of decomposing everything in their sight, and reducing these to their basic elements of carbon, nitrogen and other necessary nutrients into a material that plant roots can take up and provide to the rest of the plant.
I definitely prefer organic methods. I make my own compost- although I can never make enough to meet my needs. I do buy a lot, but I purchase it from local organic compost manufacturers. You can find a local organic composter near your area here.
here are over 5,000,000 acres of turf grass grown along the Gulf Coast. All are warm-season turf grass, each with its own characteristics and its own pros and cons. Others, like buffalo grass – although considered a warm-season grass – do not do well in Gulf Coast lawns. There are, however, three types of grass which grow reasonably well here.
Although neighbors and covenants would probably object, the adage of “one man’s weed is another man’s flower” does have a certain charm. And, as Emerson said: “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.”
I’ve got a lot of gardening tools. Hand rakes, and four of five different shovels and spades, several types of pruners, a couple of pruning saws, as well as a bow crosscut, three or four hoes, some long- and short- handle weeders, dibbles, a ton of hand tools, and a plethora of other instruments.
The USDA tells us that the “average” date of the last frost here is around February 27. It also reports that we are “almost” assured that we will receive no frost between March 20 and November 1, making the frost-free growing season around 270 days.
But weeds are ornery and persistent. Even in the most well-cared-for lawn, it’s probable that a few plantains and thistles are going to pop up. While “manufactured” herbicides may not be the best choice, there are a few products available to the environmentally conscious homeowner.
Good healthy plants can fend off disease and destructive insects. The absence of these microorganisms and larger organisms such as earthworms, result in compacted, lifeless soil. Lifeless soil, of course, cannot sustain life.
Covering over 3 million acres and extending from Mexico through Louisiana. Just at sea level or a couple of feet above, it also contains areas of salt-water marsh and drainage is slow. The water table is either at or just below the surface. Used mostly for cattle grazing, or wetland wildlife refuges, residents have developed wonderfully bountiful gardens by amending soils.
