It's Been 2 Years!

For those of you unfamiliar with Chionanthus virginicus -- or Fringetree -- you are missing out on one sweet tree/shrub.

Last year, the blooms got burned a bit by the freeze we had around Easter, so this year, these blooms, as well as many others, are a welcome sight!

Here's a picture of it taken today in full bloom & a close-up of the flowers:


The blooms are fairly fragrant. I've been out sniffing them this morning already.

This tree will get no more than about 15-20 feet tall and is a wide tree. I've mostly seen them with multiple trunks but you could prune them to a single trunk.

For those of you in Pulaski County, this tree is at the end of our path, near the entrance drive to our office.

10 Things To Do in the Garden TODAY

1. Plant peas, onions, cabbage, broccoli, potatoes, and lettuce.

2. Trim / thin shade trees -- this means using good pruning practices and leaving NO STUBS

3. Uncover strawberries

4. Apply crabgrass control to lawns

5. Plant trees and shrubs -- don't wait until they are leafed out.

6. Sharpen the mower blade

7. Get a soil test if you haven't already

8. Start another round of tomato and pepper seeds

9. Add organic matter (about a 3" layer) to your beds -- till in when the soil dries out

10. Buy some soaker hoses for the upcoming season

Sowed some Greens

The weather was nice today, albeit windy, but I managed to get out at the office and sow some kale and bok choy. I sowed them in the beds by the Extension Office. With tonight's predicted rain, they should germinate fairly soon.

The kale is a variety called Nero Di Toscana -- reading from the seed packet 'also known as Black Palm as it does resemble a palm tree. Dark green leaves are narrow and have a blistered/crumpled texture'. It is 50 days to maturity.

The bok choy is a variety called 'Joi Choi', a fairly popular variety. It is 45 days to maturity.

Greens, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, lettuce, spinach, carrots, and onions should be sown or transplanted this month. Don't wait too late since they will suffer with warm temperatures.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Whether you agree or not with our own Kentucky girl, Barbara Kingsolver, she really communicates to non-farm people about the identity of their food and why they should care in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

I just got through reading it -- even though it's been out for more than a year -- and it has made me care about where my food is coming from, though every winter I cannot bring myself to buy fresh produce out of season anyway. Anyone lucky enough to get hold of this book will at least think a bit about their shopping habits.

Kingsolver is a KY girl -- from up near where I was raised as a matter of fact -- and she weaves in stories about her life in KY so that makes it fun. I encourage everyone to read it and perhaps, change some of the ways they approach procuring their food.

This coming spring and summer, you all will have to fight me for all the local strawberries and peaches!

Wildlife woes

I've just returned from getting some training -- a dangerous thing. Of course, some of the interesting things I learned, I wanted to pass along.

• Squirrels may be cute, but they're mean, mean, mean!
• When dealing with nuisance wildlife, THE most cost effective way to deal with them is exclusion -- that's right, folks. Keep deer out with a fence, keep squirrels out with hardware cloth, keep bats out with some plastic netting. Our wildlife Extension Specialist will back me up since he's the one who told us.
• If you trap a nuisance animal with the intent to release it somewhere else, it cannot be on public land. That means you can't dump it in the Daniel Boone Forest. If you release it on another person's land, you must have their written permission, otherwise you could be in some trouble.
• There's a good chance if you release a trapped animal at a different site, the animal will die anyway. Other animals may not like the new guy and beat it up. Or else the animal could wander around for a long time with little fat stores trying to find food and shelter. Not a fun way to die.

Nuisance wildlife is a problem most of us will encounter at some point. Just remember, changing the animal's habitat (to make our yards less appealing) and exclusion are the best tactics against them.

Return from Meeting

January is a renewal time for horticulture crop growers. Seems like they all have conferences in early January. I attended the Kentucky Landscape Industries conference and the Kentucky Fruit and Vegetable Conference. Here's a very short list of a few things worth repeating from the conferences:

• Get beyond geraniums as container plants -- use tropicals, use succulents, and arrange containers in your existing garden to stage those container plants
• Don't fill a large container full of styrofoam peanuts to make the container less heavy. It may become top heavy. It's better to mix the peanuts throughout the medium. Makes sense, doesn't it?
• If you're using woody plants in containers that will be left outdoors 12 months out of the year, you must choose plants that are hardy to zone 2 or 3
• In Kentucky, don't be surprised if home-grown strawberries are available in late April instead of May. This is do-able in some regions in KY. Wow! I love that!
• KY gardeners should use intermediate-day or 'day neutral' onion varieties to have the best luck in bulb formation and maturation. Soil sulfur content determines how pungent the onion will be.

Just a few tidbits of information to share with you.

Winter may be here, but speaking of onions, I'll be planting onion seed during this upcoming week. See -- it's already time to start gardening!

Definitely Fall

It's definitely crisp outside. Here are some images from the office garden area:

Beautyberry stems


Pawpaw leaves litter the ground


Swiss chard 'Bright Lights' still look great even after multiple frosts