Jesse Jenkins

We had a wonderful long wet spring, but now the heat has hit and rains have reduced; it’s time to get back to once a week lawn watering. We need to maintain moisture to keep our plants happy and healthy. Watering slow and deep, at least 1 inch a week is good. We recommend using a tuna fish or cat food can with a 1″ mark inside to measure the amount of water your sprinkler puts out.

Place the can in the path of the sprinkler and when water is up to the 1 inch mark, that tells you how long you need to water with your sprinkler type and water pressure in your neighborhood. New plantings will need to be watered more often, so please use a moisture meter to determine their needs.

You should fertilize again now, as heavy spring rains have washed out much of the soil nutrients. Using Milorganite, Medina Growin Green will not encourage excessive growth, but give your yard the nutrients it needs for the long hot days ahead, and organic fertilizers will increase soil ability to capture and retain moisture.

-DeAnna

Chinese Hat aka Holmskioldia tettensis (that’s a mouthful☺)

The Chinese Hat has become one of our favorite plants since we purchased one to try 5 or 6 years ago. It grew 3 to 4 feet its first year, and another 3 to 4 feet the following. It now stands above our 6 foot fence covered with clusters of pink and purple flowers resembling the conical Chinese hat worn in many Asian cultures. It responds well to trimming, no bugs, grows fast, long bloom season, and unique that not everyone has it, are reasons enough to try one! Hope you enjoy as much as we do.

-Mike

(DeAnna’s truck – always there, at 6:30am!)

In a few weeks we’ll be closing the stores early on a Saturday to have a pool party at our home to celebrate our Gill’s nursery & landscape staff. We recognize those who have been with Gill’s 1 year, 5 years, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years. This year we’re celebrating DeAnna’s, our Alameda store manager, 30th year with Gill’s!

DeAnna Baumgartner is a local girl, graduating from Flour Bluff High School. Upon graduation, she played basketball for McLennon Community College and Baylor University, qualifying for the 1980 Summer Olympic Team. She joined us in 1984, and became a Texas Certified Nursery Professional in 1986.

In the fall of 1986, James started thinking we needed a small garden center in central Corpus Christi for the spring season since our Airline location was so far from town. I was pregnant with our second son, Trevor, and honestly wasn’t too keen on the idea. James convinced me it was just for five months, February through June, and then we would go back to a single store operation. DeAnna was our first choice to manage our little temporary store. She accepted, and we all know the rest of the story; she’s been the number one lady in charge of Gill’s Alameda for 28 years!

DeAnna gets to her store around 6:30 in the morning, many times has swept the nursery, done some spot watering and maybe even unloaded a truck or two before the doors open at 8 a.m. DeAnna is a hands-on manager. She works alongside anyone and everyone who needs a helping hand. She hires, she trains, she motivates, she brings treats and sometimes she’s been known to do a little counseling, to help staff through various life challenges. DeAnna is just as close to many of her customers as she is to her staff. She calls David Dunn her week-end boyfriend, I think because he’s there every Saturday. Billy Johnson used to bring her donuts EVERY Saturday morning. I’ve heard of customers calling ahead, placing their order, and DeAnna running to their car with their garden supplies.

DeAnna took it upon herself many years ago to learn not only everything she could about plants that do well in our area, but also how to take care of them. She studied how to enrich the soil, which fertilizers plants responded best to, what bugs get on them and what insecticides could be used on them with the least toxicity, everything to help her customers be successful with gardening. When DeAnna attended national trade shows, she was the first to ask if a label could be changed to better describe its benefits. She shared what her customers needed with the manufacturers and they listened. A year or two later, what she asked for would be on our shelves. Because DeAnna stays current to the challenges we are faced with in our gardens, our local extension agents call on her for advice and information.

As part of her volunteer Master Gardener role, in 2006 DeAnna became the Nueces County “Learning To Grow” coordinator, building vegetable gardens in elementary schools from Agua Dulce to Port Aransas. She has planned and assisted with the installation of over 300 vegetable gardens to date, including every CCISD elementary, middle and high school, private schools, the Mother Theresa Shelter, La Mirada Housing Project and the Food Bank of Corpus Christi. Her goal is to open young peoples’ eyes to the wonder of gardening and the importance of healthy eating. She continues to build gardens each new season, adding to her list private schools, church schools and non-profits. In the fall and spring of each year, seed and seedlings are delivered to our Alameda store. From there, she along with other Master Gardeners organize and pack product to go to each of the participating gardens. In 2013, DeAnna was awarded 2nd place State of Texas “Master Gardener Of The Year” for her contributions to the “Learn To Grow” program in our area.

In 2010 DeAnna helped to resurrect the Ray High School Greenhouse for the science classes and the botany club, which has become an award winning project. The Master Gardener program this year awarded their first scholarship to a Ray High School student for their hard work and dedication to horticulture.

On her days off, when not working with the Master Gardeners, she enjoys vegetable and container gardening in her own back yard (she does know a great place to get plants!) as well as spending time with her husband, Clint Knight, and very best friend, Carol Krank, of the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center. The girls celebrate each week with 3 M’s, Mexican food, margaritas and movies.

James and I admire DeAnna for her leadership and product knowledge. We’re thankful for her commitment to learning and sharing her garden knowledge, for providing a safe and good place for our community to work and shop and we’re thankful for her commitment to quality. She cares about her customers and their gardening success. Thank you DeAnna!

-Sally

It seems everywhere I turn I see bugs. Chinch bugs in the grass, worms eating bougainvilleas, scale on irises and lilies, mealy bugs on tropicals. To spray, or not to spray? That is the question. We need to raise our tolerance of what is acceptable in our landscapes. A few bugs here or there or a little plant damage is all o.k. Did you know that only about 5% of insects are bad? Many insects are even beneficial. This fact is the reason you must decide whether or not to spray. Lots of times nature will take care of itself if you wait a few days. Keep your plants as healthy as possible, and you will not have many insect or disease problems.

First, make sure you have the right plant in the right place, proper sun exposure, correct spacing of plants to insure air circulation, regular feeding, mulched beds, watering. All of these things reduce stress and result in perfect growing conditions for your plants keeping them happy and healthy. We call it IPM or Integrated Pest Management. If you do determine you need to treat a problem insect, start with the least toxic approach.

Insects and disease go for the weak and stressed plants first.
A few aphids can be controlled with a blast of water.
A cluster of mealybugs on the tips of plants can be remedied by pruning and discarding the area.
Using Insecticidal Soap, Neem Oil, or Thuricide sprayed on plants with insects is your next approach.
Never spray everything just because one plant has a problem.

So look around your yard; see what’s happening. If you’re not sure whether you have a beneficial or a problem insect, just put a sample in a ziplock bag and bring it to us. We will help identify the bug and tell you if you need a control solution.

-Deanna

It likely is not working properly! Just like your mower needs the sparkplug adjusted, oil changed, blade sharpened, and maybe a wheel or starter rope replaced, things will go wrong with your irrigation system. But since it operates while you are in bed, you don’t know what needs fixing. I had not operated my sprinkler system since October last year due to the rains, and before starting it up last week, I did a maintenance check. I have Program D on my controller programmed with no start time , 2 minutes on the first valve, and 1 minute on every other valve. I turn the dial to Program D and manually activate, then go around the yard with a pad and pencil and note all problems. Some newer controllers have a test function built in, very handy.

This is what I found in my yard:

Valve 4 had a head that was grown over with grass, and could not rise up, so all water was just running over the curb (quick fix, just cut around with a serrated knife to sever the grass runners).
Valve 7 had a head with a nozzle twisted 90 degrees (another quick and easy, grab the nozzle with Channelock pliers and twist it back so all water is going on the lawn, instead of half of it into the street).
Valve 12 had a head with a nozzle plugged with a bit of trash, so the head would pop up but no water coming out. This was a much more technical fix, that is, bopping the popped nozzle on the head gently but persuasively with the afore mentioned Channelocks until the trash was ejected and a good flow resumed. If this fails, you will need to keep a hold of the head as the water flow is shut off, screw off the plugged nozzle, and clear it by blowing back through the orifice, or poking a thin wire or broom straw back through it.

I recommend performing this test once a month, to most efficiently utilize water and to avoid discovering sprinkler malfunctions by finding dead patches in your lawn. You should also seasonally adjust your controller from one day a week operation in summer to once every two weeks in fall, and then turn it off for winter, only activating manually every 3 or 4 weeks if there has been no rain, or immediately preceding a forecasted hard freeze event. Replace your program backup battery as needed. Otherwise at any power outage your program, including the current date and time, will be lost and you will need to reprogram. This video from Texas A&M on the Cycle Soak Method describes how to set your timer for best utilization of water, but recognize when he says 5 to 6 minutes run time, that is for spray nozzles, and you will need a longer run time for the valves that supply water to rotors or drip tube.

-James

Fall vegetable gardening is right around the corner. It seems too hot to even think about gardening, but you should start now to ensure a successful crop this fall. It is recommended to begin planting tomatoes and peppers mid- August. Many seeds begin the first week of September. I usually plant my tomatoes in September, but the longer you wait to plant, the bigger you need to buy.

First, you need to pull up the last of the tomato plants from your spring garden. Any other veggies that are looking summer worn need to be pulled also. They will never recover for a fall crop anyway.

Next you need to weed the garden. You could try covering the garden for a few weeks with plastic to solarize which will kill most weeds, but this usually is done earlier in the summer for a couple of months of solarization. Hand hoeing or tilling can be done depending on the size of the garden.

Be sure to thoroughly water the ground a day or two ahead to soften it since we have had no rain for weeks. Once all the old plants and weeds are removed, it is time to work in compost. The more compost the better. And you know what that means if you have ever dug in our soil. Heavy clay soil is not conducive to rapid root development. The better the soil prep, the better the plants grow.

The more roots a plant develops, the easier it is for the plant to take up valuable nutrients and water. Be sure to use a good quality compost. We carry Cotton Burr Compost, Natures Blend Compost. I have always said,” You need a $50.00 hole for a $5.00 plant.” Life does begin with the soil, so always spend a little extra time, effort and money when it comes to soil prep. Your plants will reward you.

-DeAnna

It’s one of the many reasons summer in South Texas is harsh. Even if you slather yourself in sunscreen and try to stay in the shade, inevitably you’ll run into a swarm of fire ants. These ants are actually an invasive species brought to North America from Brazil, and have a hard-crusted large mound that can contain up to 250,000 ants and multiple queens. Now, treating for fire ants is never fun, but here are some organic methods that might just do the trick. If you prefer a bait method, try Come-And-Get-It! Fire Ant Killer. It’s an organic bait that is saturated in oil, so make sure your yard or garden isn’t wet when you apply. If you can find the mound, make sure you sprinkle bait directly around it, but also treat the perimeter of your garden or yard for foraging ants. Evening is the best time to spread baits. Drenches can also be beneficial. The Texas AgriLife Extension Agency recommends a liquid drench of 1.5 oz. Medina Orange Oil and 3 oz. Dawn Dish Soap to one gallon of water. Then drench the mound in the late afternoon, when the ants are done foraging. Please note: Neither of these methods is a permanent solution. Unfortunately, fire ants can come back again and again, but using organic methods like baits and oil drenches ensures that your garden or yard stays fire ant-free while keeping your microorganisms and beneficial insect populations intact!

-Marta

If you are not going to plant into your newly prepped vegetable gardens right away, please be sure to keep them moist and mulched. By doing this, you will prevent the heat from removing all that great organic material you’ve just mixed into your beds. Water is a staple of life, for both plants and the little microorganisms in the soil, and without it both will inevitably die. The mulch will help you control weeds, and if any do pop up, well, it’s a lot easier to pull weeds from mulch than it is from dense soil. Right before you plant your transplants or seeds, you could mix a modest handful of Gardenville Rocket Fuel at the bottom of the planting hole. Also, mix a little Espoma Plant Tone into the dirt when you plant. Happy Gardening!

-Matt

Jesse Jenkins

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