Catch-up!

Our Master Gardener training sessions are flying by! I haven't had time to post in between sessions, so I will try to catch up today.

Note: Volunteer hours will be counted as follows: Project as a group - 50-60% of total.

Individual hours are 25-30%, and community service with other groups can count as up to 10 hours.

On Saturday the 24th, we met at the courthouse and went on a plant walk around downtown Bucyrus. Steve pointed out the difference between Norway Maples, which can be identified by their milky sap, and are somewhat subject to vertmilicin wilt, and Silver Maples, which typically have poor branch angles and are subject to winter storm damage and limb breakage. The Sugar Maple behind the Norway picture in this photo appears to be in good condition.

Maples and oaks are stately trees, which is good for a permanent public building like a courthouse. Oaks can live up to 300 years.

Unless landscape plantings are to be in a very formal or symmetrical configuration, they should be planted in odd numbers. Some of the evergreens around the courthouse showed signs of damage. Taxus does not tolerate wet feet, but the site has adequate damage, it could possibly be a sign of salt damage from the snow removal.

Our walk took us past the Historical Society, which is housed in a beautiful old building. When the architecture is so fantastic, the landscaping should really enhance the architecture and not compete with it.

Steve pointed out an example of "volcano mulching" which is where the mulch is piled up around the base of the tree. This can be harmful, it allows insects to damage the bark. Mulch should be pulled away a minimum of 3 inches from the trunk.

After our walk, we grabbed shovels and spades and planted red, white and blue petunias in front of the veteran's monument for Memorial Day.

We discussed options for planting the back side of the memorial, it has full sun on one side and shade on the other. pH is high, drainage is excellent, and the plants must tolerate a lot of public traffic. One option for the shady side that was suggested was vinca minor; an option for the sunny side was Zinnia elegans.

Weeds in Turf Grass

We identified a number of weeds in or near the turfgrass plots at Unger farm - this is creeping Charlie, or ground ivy - a member of the mint family.

Black Medic - looks like clover with yellow flowers - see //www.turf.uiuc.edu/weed_web/lookalikes/medic_oxalis_clover.htm

Speedwell -

Mouse ear Chickweed

Turf Grass

We were at Unger Farm tonight for our lesson on Turf grass.

Steve pointed out that the conifers at the edge of the farm were Austrian pine and Scotch pine. The Scotch pine can be identified by the orange bark and the orange tips on the "candles" as well as the slightly twisted needles. If you need to prune a conifer, wait until the candles appear and then twist them off. If you cut the branches it will stop growing.

Turf grass - Steve pointed out that the Kentucky bluegrass had the best color, and the best condition, thoroughly crowded out weeds, and was expensive and time-consuming to maintain. The best grass for a family that uses their lawn might be a mixture of Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescue - it is the easiest to maintain and has nice quality. Perennial ryegrass is quick to grow but doesn't keep the weeds out, and is subject to diseases such as rust mold and snow mold. It will out-compete other seeds in mixtures such as a commercial mix which is usually sold because it will grow in most conditions, sun or shade.

Cultural practices are VERY IMPORTANT for turf grasses - never mow more than 1/3 the blade. Mowing too short allows weed seeds to germinate and reduces the ability of the desired grass to photosynthesize. The most important fertilization is in the fall. Weed control is important. Corn gluten meal is expensive and only provides moderate control. 2,4-D is inexpensive and if you use it properly you only have to spot-treat in the fall. Nicer lawns use less pesticides.

We also reviewed the "how-to" for renovating a lawn, and Steve demonstrated the use of a soil probe for gathering a soil sample.

Note the change in schedule for June 3 to June 2 (Monday) and that there is a test on Saturday on Fertilizers.

Raised Bed Gardening

Our topic for Tuesday was Raised Bed Gardening, with a guest speaker, Glenn Arnold from Putnam County. He shared a lot of his personal experience with raised bed gardens.

Some of his reasons for using raised beds:
- Less time needed
- Competition with retired neighbors!
- Space
- Family members don't enjoy gardening

He also shared some disadvantages of raised beds:
- Initial expense
- Repairs were required after 7 years
- Weed pressure along wooden frame
- more difficult to cultivate/incorporate residues
- weed trimming along the garden
- tough to dig in deep with the cultivator

He advised planting vegetables by type, for example, cool-season/direct seeded in one bed, and warm-season transplants in another. He also advised planting fewer vegetables that your family doesn't like to eat and more of the ones that they do!

Some modifications to his raised beds were cold farms, bird netting, sub-surface irrigation, and gas heat.

He shared a hint about keeping cabbage heads from splitting - when they are just at the right size, break the ribs of the outer leaves, and the cabbage will keep in the garden for a long time (protect from insects!)

He uses 12-12-12 fertilizer, about 3 lbs per 100 square feet of garden, and incorporates 1-4 inches of organic matter per year.

He reviewed troublesome diseases and troublesome insects - and gave us Ohioline flyers for several of these, including striped cucumber beetles and squash vine borers.

Fertilizers

Tonight's class at the OSU farm was re-located to the Courthouse due to rain. We may be able to have a class on May 15 (Thursday) to make up the turf grass class.

Steve did a fine job of presenting an alternate topic tonight - Fertilizers - on short notice.

Here are a few of my notes from class
16 Essential Nutrients
Macronutrients
The Big Three:
- Nitrogen
- Phosphorus
- Potassium
Adequately supplied in soil:
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Sulfur
Micronutrients:
- Iron
- Manganese
- Zinc
- Copper
- Molybdenum
- Boron - very potent in large amounts, will kill plants and insects
- Chlorine - oxidizer

If there is a nitrogen deficiency, leaves will "burn" or turn yellow at the bottom of the plant
If the deficiency is phosphorus, the symptoms will be reduced growth and flowering, and browing or purpling foliage. A potassium deficiency will show up as reduced growth, shortened internodes, and leaf margin burn.

Fertilizer analysis - Percentage by weight of an element is present in a particular fertilizer mixture. The analysis is on the package of commercial fertilizer - in 3 numbers.
8-32-16 means 8 percent nitrogen, 32 percent Phosphorus (as P2O5) and 16 percent Potassium (as K2O).

Don't guess - soil test! We went over a sample soil test result and determined how to calculate how many pounds of fertilizer to apply to meet the soil test recommendations.

Class members are reminded to bring a container (like a cottage cheese container, no larger) to class next week.

Late-breaking news

Tonight's session on turf grass is scheduled at the farm. Steve says that if we decide it's too rainy we'll retreat to the courthouse. Also, it's OK to bring folding or collapsible chairs to class at the farm.

OK, I'm on my way!

Curtis Young - Basic Entomology for Master Gardeners

Whew! I took over 11 pages of notes on Monday night! Dr. Young was a great lecturer - we were so fascinated he could have run over his time and most of us would have stayed longer just to hear more about "bugs" that aren't really insects, like spiders or slugs.

He shared an entomologist joke with us - "All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs" - I think he was referring to "true" bugs.

Trivia about insects:
- Fossil records show 300 million years of bug life
- In any given day, 10 quintillion (that's 10,000,000,000,000,000) insects are alive
- 20 per cent of all crops grown are eaten by insects
- Approximately 1 in 6 people alive are currently affected by an insect-vectored disease

He assured us that, although it is possible to use dichotomous keys to positively identify insects, as master gardeners it is perfectly OK to make an educated guess about what family of insects a particular specimen may belong to and then go look at pictures to further identify it.

He went over the various pieces of insect anatomy - including the functions of the head pieces, thorax, and abdoment parts, and gave us much detailed information on each. Then we identified various common insects by looking at close-ups of their eyes. Fascinating! Deer flies have striped eyes!

Another interesting fact - if you are looking at an insect and it has wings, you can be SURE it is an adult. Most insect adults have two pairs of wings, except for those without any wings at all, like fleas, and the true flies - who only have one set. Immature insects are often wingless or have only embryonic wings.

Secrest Arbortum - Wooster, Oh

It was cold, wet and rainy at the plant sale, but that didn't stop the determined gardeners. I was greeted by a couple of fellows trying to hawk their hardy banana trees, they said it would overwinter outdoors, even here! There were rare plants for auction - I saw one going for $425. Pretty steep just to get something unusual in your garden!

Indoors, there were annuals, perennials, and herbs for sale, as well as watercolors, stainless steel garden decorations and hand carved birds and birdhouses, all by local artists.

I spied an unusual feathery Lotus vine, but didn't buy it. I overspent my budget on a dogwood tree and some lavender plants, as well as a couple of anise plants.





There was quite a showing of ornamental trees. Some were labeled as to genus, species and varieties, and some were not.

The Wayne County Master Gardeners were selling "tufa" planters - a lightweight planter that looks like a heavy cement planter. They had 3 sizes, selling for $10, $20, and $30. I found a link to instructions for making tufa troughs in Fine Gardening at http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/how-to/articles/make-hypertufa-trough.aspx

if you missed the sale and want to make your own.

Getting Started

I thought it would be a good idea to have a blog for the Crawford County, Ohio Master Gardeners - class of '08 to have a place to exchange ideas, questions, experiences and photos.

So, here is the blog! I'll post some photos from Secrest Arboretum later today.