Jesse Jenkins

This past Saturday, I gave a quick talk about attracting Hummingbirds into your garden, so I figured I’d give a quick recap of hummingbird gardens in case you missed it! We are lucky enough to have 18 different kinds of hummingbirds in our area when they migrate, so make sure you add these plants to your garden. Turks Cap is my number one pick for a hummingbird plant. It’s nectar rich, native, colorful, and tough as nails. Fire bush is another great addition. Its tubular flowers make it a hummingbird magnet. And don’t forget about Anisacanthus, or Hummingbird Bush. The name really does say it all! It gets covered in bright orange small tubular flowers on a shrub that gets about 3 to 5 feet tall. Always change your nectar on your feeders at least every 1-3 days, especially in the heat, and don’t add food dye or use artificial sweeteners. And enjoy them while they’re here!

-Marta

This sign outside a Dublin flower shop reminded me it’s time to plant my favorite flower, Sweet pea! Sweet peas are the official flower for April and very easy to grow. Just remember to plant seeds in September or October in South Texas and ignore the package directions to plant in spring. My dad started me planting Sweet peas when I was a little girl. He put nails in the fence slats so I could wrap twine over each nail in a zigzag fashion to support the fast-growing vines. The result was a solid fence line of colorful, fragrant flowers to snip and arrange in little bouquets indoors. I was thrilled to find Sweet peas in almost every garden I visited in Ireland. They usually adorned the veggie/herb garden, twining on a variety of supports such as bamboo pole teepees and iron arbors. If you want to try growing these beauties buy seeds now and find a sunny spot in the garden where you can provide support for the vines. Work good compost into the soil. I use Nature’s Blend. Then, fill a shallow pan with enough water to cover the seeds and soak them overnight. Next day, remove the seeds from water and roll them in inoculant powder. Plant at depth and spacing per package instructions and water regularly.

-Kathy

After all the spring rains giving us lush green lawns, it sure didn’t take long for the dog days of summer to take its toll on some. We are diagnosing lots of chinch bugs and grub worm damage. James has a couple of videos on our website and You Tube about lawns. Be sure to check those out to help you diagnose your problems. You can also bring in a sample for us to look at. Use a shovel and dig us up a shovel width square of grass with the soil attached. You will be able to take the sample back home and put it back in the hole you dug. We will help diagnose your problem and get you the best solution to fix it. Spreading Natures Blend Compost over the area will help it to recover quicker. Continue with your once a week slow and deep watering through September and October, but after that, we should be able to cut back to every other week due to shorter days and cooler temperatures and hopefully more rainfall.

Good news! We contacted our biggest & best grower about higher doses of chlorine in our water and if it could damage plants in our landscape. They said if it’s good to drink, it’s good for the plants. One less thing to worry about!

-Sally

Oh my goodness, our nurseries are filling up with beautiful mums & marigolds!

Marigolds come in oranges and yellows and grow to around 10″-15″ tall. They love the sun and do great in pots around your garden or in the ground. If planting in a pot, plant with our MiracleGro potting mix and then fertilize with Hasta-Gro Plant Liquid Fertilizer through the growing season.

Turn your garden from summer to fall with our mums, available in reds and yellows and oranges and purples. They also love the sun! In November when the blooms look tired, take a pair of hedge shears and lightly trim off spent blooms to encourage new growth and blooms. Mums also like the Hasta-Gro Plant Liquid Fertilizer.

-Sally

Remember to rotate your crops from last season if possible. Also do not crowd your plants. Insects and disease love places that are overcrowded with no air circulation. Spacing your plants will limit the areas for the bugs to hide.

There are many organic options to keep insects and disease under control. For insects, use Insecticidal Soap for soft-bodied bugs, Spinosad for beetles, caterpillars, and leafminer. To prevent powdery mildew on curcurbits and cole crops, use Serenade or Neem Oil, when it comes to disease, it is always easier to prevent than to cure. Also, mulching the garden with Hardwood Mulch or Pine Straw will keep fungal spores from splashing up onto the plants.

Fall can be the best season for growing vegetables due to the cooler weather and more rainfall, unlike the spring garden where we are heading into the hottest season. So plant now, space things out, keep the garden weed free, fertilize regularly and be a good bug scout. And remember, only spray insecticides if necessary. We do not want to kill the bees or other pollinators in the garden.

-DeAnna

This beautiful vine is our climbing spinach we planted this past April. It’s not really spinach but the leaves look like and taste a lot like spinach. It is delicious fresh or steamed. Basella rubra aka Malabar spinach is a fast growing edible vine found in temperate climates around the world. It loves spring summer and fall temps but not so much colder weather.

As you can see it’ll climb on anything, maybe even a person if you stand too close too long! Mark it on your calendar to plant some next spring; we’ll be getting it in a 4″ pot!

Anytime between mid-September and mid-October is prime time to fertilize the lawn, trees, shrubs, vines and groundcovers. Fertilizing while it is still warm is best because plants are still in their active growing season and taking up the nutrients provided.

Here’s a repost of DeAnna’s fertilizing guide from earlier this year:

“Anytime between mid-September and mid-October is prime time to fertilize the lawn, trees, shrubs, vines and groundcovers. Fertilizing while it is still warm is best because plants are still in their active growing season and taking up the nutrients provided. Once the weather starts cooling down plants begin going into dormancy and therefore are not as likely to take up the nutrients needed for the fall and winter. Remember to water in the fertilizer with at least a ½ inch of irrigation. Never depend on the rain to water in your fertilizer, because as you know, it never rains when predicted, and also never gives us that perfect ½ inch. It either rains too much, too little, or not at all. Making sure the timing is right and proper amount of water is applied assures your lawn of getting the full benefit of the nutrients it needs to maintain healthy leaves and roots for the dormant season. We carry our Gill Lawn and Garden and also several organic lawn fertilizers. Never use Weed and Feed if you have any trees or shrubs in the yard. Trees are a broadleaf just like a weed, so it will try to kill them as well. Weed killers and weed preventers can be used in October once our temperatures moderate in the 80’s. We will talk about them more as the season approaches.”

-DeAnna

Jesse Jenkins

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