Poison ivy

At home, we have a fairly small patch of woods that I simply adore. There is a small creek that runs through it -- my girls & I absolutely love our woodsy walks.

Several years before I married my husband, he allowed his brother to run his horses on our land. Part of the land they had access to was the woods.

I love horses but they created a mess down in our woods that I am trying to clean up to this day! They brought in every weed or otherwise invasive plant you can imagine. In the spring and summer there's poison ivy and smartweed that seems to overwhelm you. In the winter, it's the japanese honeysuckle and the wintercreeper euonymus.

In the winter, you have full access to just the honeysuckle and wintercreeper since they are about the only things green. Sunday afternoon, I yanked and pulled and yanked some more til I had 4 garbage bags full of mostly honeysuckle. I barely got 200 sq ft cleared. It humbles you really. My husband asked me how many bags I got, I told him 4. He asked how many there were to go, I said 4000. (It's not really quite that bad).

If anyone says you can't get poison ivy in the winter, tell them they are wrong. I must have pulled up some poison ivy and the only spot on me where skin was showing is now red & puckered with a few blisters (on my wrist).

Meeting'ed-out

In January, many Extension agents are on the road. Going to meeting after meeting. That's all well and good because we need to get educated, updated, and kind of energized for the coming year.

I attend the Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association annual winter meeting, the Mid-States Horticultural Expo, the Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference, and two or three non-commodity things.

I always say that if you get one thing from a 2 or 3 day meeting, it's worth it. And I have. I hope I can serve the people of Pulaski Co even better with my recently learned stuff.

Here's an example or 3:
1. I learned that 'they' have actually bred Echinacea to death.
-- Don't get me wrong, some of the introductions are pretty neat, but enough already!
2. I learned that farmers/nurserymen who employ H2A workers must pay them more than what US workers would get under the potential NEW minimum wage.
-- (I actually already knew that but isn't that interesting?)
3. I learned that Kentucky's fruit and vegetable production has been increasing 8-10% per year -- it's now a $50 million industry.
-- We need to keep it growing. You can help by buying locally produced fruits, vegetables, nursery stock, greenhouse bedding plants, etc.

That's enough for today. I included a picture of our lilac buds that started to open this week.

Ah, springtime in Somerset

I'm back in the office today and went out to look at our plantings here at the office.

Here's a sampling of what's happening out there:

• some lilac buds are beginning to open just slightly
• peony shoots are emerging
• daffodils shoots are up anywhere from 2-6" tall
• seedlings of Baptisia and Monarda are germinating
  
• Knockout roses 1) never lost all their old leaves and 2) new leaves are emerging
• butterflybushes have new green leaves

This is January 5, folks. Spring, by the calendar, is still 2+ months away (March 20). I don't know -- it's a little too freaky for me.

Houseplants -- Good or Bad?

I subscribe and read Garden Rant, a blog by a trio of women whose opinions are interesting and usually evoke a lot of discussion.

Recently the blog posted '10 Reasons to Hate Houseplants'. There was some thoughtful discussion. I've never had a tremendous amount of luck with houseplants -- mainly because I do not have enough south-facing windows or space to put them.

I must admit, I'm more fond of getting outside and gardening there rather than being inside tending to plants. I am one whose home does not lend itself well to keeping houseplants. I wish it did. I think I would grow more fond of them. Furthermore, I just plain forget to water them. It sounds ridiculous, especially when I am in the same room with them 50% of the time I'm home.

In fact, in the last few weeks, I think I managed to kill a fern because 1)our home is too mild and 2) again, I forgot to water the durn thing.

Good luck with your houseplants! And Happy Holidays!

Oh Christmas Tree

I'm not here to argue what's better - a real or a fake Christmas tree. I certainly see the convenience and money savings (depending on what you buy) of a fake tree. But as I was looking at our puny, little, yet nicely decorated fake tree the other evening, I thought that this Christmas would be the last time I bring that durn thing out to decorate.

Most of us can remember the trip to the Christmas tree lot or the woods to pick out the 'best' tree to take back to our homes. It was a family affair that I can still remember (and I don't have the best memory). I also remember the one time we went out on my great-grandparents farm and cut an old white pine to bring in for my elderly kin.

It was GREAT! And if it was snowing, that was even better! And so what if it was lopsided -- that's part of it! 2007 will be my year of the return to the REAL Christmas tree.

For more information on using cut or live trees in your home, go to the National Christmas Tree Association.

So many trees/shrubs, so little room to plant them all

While teaching a class on uncommon trees/shrubs that have a place in any home landscape, it was very tough to narrow down the list to what could be talked about in an hour and a half. Very difficult.

If I had a whole day, there would still be ones left out. So here's a quick list of some that are absolutely outstanding!

1. A biased #1 -- I absolutely love this plant -- Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum)












2. Beautyberry (Callicarpa spp.)








3. Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)












4. Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) or hybrids with our native dogwood (C. kousa x C. florida)
5. Deciduous hollies (Ilex decidua or I. verticillata)
6. Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)
7. Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora)
8. Blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica)

I'll stop there since my list would be very long if I tried to keep all the good ones on there. For a more comprehensive list, go to my website. It's a work in progress.

Please post your own favorites here. I'll warn you not to even mention ornamental pears or burning bushes -- they are not good plants...in my opinion...and overused to the point of being sickening.

A Good-looking Tree

When I came back to the office today, I told the secretary that I found a good-looking tree that I was leaving to take a picture of. She said 'Beth, you're old!'

If you don't believe me, take a look at this bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) that grows within a mile of our office. A deciduous conifer with rusty fall color. It'll only be a bit before the leaves fall off. Then you get to look at the great architecture of this plant.

When you think of bald cypresses, you immediately think of the 'knees' when the plant is near water. This plant doesn't need a flooded root zone to live and thrive! It does perfectly fine in a regular ol' soil. You won't get any knees, though.

This is a plant worthy of much more planting. Check out more information here.