A Few of My Favorite Things

Just a simple message today about being a good consumer. Disclaimer: UK does not endorse anything I'm about to say.

There are more choices out there in the tree and shrub world than what Lowe's (insert any big box store name here) offers for sale in its stores. There -- I said it. I can't stand Lowe's. I can't stand Walmart. You will never find me there -- except when I HAVE to buy my daughter a new dance outfit the VERY night she started her dance class and WM was the only choice at 8pm.

There are so many different, unique, beautiful, trees and shrubs in the world! And many of you end up buying Bradford pears, Taxus, dogwoods, just whatever might be in stock at the store.

Well, let me name a few of my favorites and show you a few you're missing: Fringetree, Sourwood (below left), Kentucky Coffeetree, Blue ash, Bald Cypress, Daphne (at right), Contorted Filbert, Buttonbush (at left), Serviceberry, Bottlebrush buckeye, Beautyberry, Fothergilla, Kousa dogwood, purple redbuds, white redbuds, weeping redbuds, red-leafed redbuds to name a few.

With the internet, we have no excuse for settling. Research your choices. Be a good consumer.

NC State University has a good website on various trees and shrubs with pictures.

More Plants but No Room

Every gardener has done this one -- buy plants with absolutely no place to put them. I do that much too often. Of course, when that happens you have to either stick them in a pot -- or -- cringe -- make a new bed.

It's not that I don't like making new beds in the garden. It's just that I have to de-sod bermudagrass. This is not fun. You can never remove all the bermuda. The best you can do is cut its head off (from which 3 new plants form, or course).

I made 2 new small beds over the weekend. Our yard has great soil. I planted some natives I got at the Salato Center's Native Plant Program semi-annual plant sale. I got boneset, Indian grass, New England asters, yellow coneflower, and my daughter picked out one catchfly (the bloom had faded to pink, she loves pink, and it was within arm's reach -- she was very proud, so I had to get it). These were planted on the south side of our house.

I also planted another native, Carolina Sweetshrub or Calycanthus fertilis. A plant here at the office had suckered so I dug it up. It lived, so I planted the little squirt on the north side of my house.

I also planted in the full-sun bed 2 seedling false blue indigo, Baptisia australis, (pictured at left) that I collected from around our plant here at the office.

So, come next year, I won't even remember the aching back and the sorry bermudagrass. Actually, I'll remember the bermuda since it will be in my new beds more than likely. Oh well, I'll enjoy the new plants up close while yanking out bermudagrass.

Poor Souls

I have a box in the back of my truck that holds miscellaneous things I need in doing my job. Boots, pruners, wooden stakes, a couple of publications, measuring tape, etc. It was taken out of my truck in broad daylight yesterday as it sat in the parking lot of the Extension office.

I feel sorry for the poor souls that felt like they needed to take my stuff. Actually, it was all bought with taxpayer money, so the poor soul is costing Pulaski County residents, not me personally. There are a bunch of yard sales this weekend, so someone will probably end up buying the stuff.

I needed new pruners anyway.

Worms Really Do Eat Garbage!

About 2 months ago, our office bought a worm bin, complete with worms and Mary Appelhof's book Worms Eat My Garbage. I've always liked worms -- you can ask my sister, who didn't share my enjoyment as a kid -- but never thought about cultivating them on a small scale.

Our worm bin sits outside our office and quietly, organic materials are digested. In 2 months time, I have deposited about 13 pounds of scraps. I've probably kept the worms on the lean side since I probably could have put twice that amount in the bin in those 2 months.

I compost at home, but those cold trips to the compost pile in January and February could be history if worms were in the basement. I could throw in all the dead crickets too.

Having this worm bin has really opened my eyes on how much work a small amount of worms can do. Just something to think about. Happy Labor Day everyone!

Know Your Plants!!!

I shouldn't, but I do get a little aggravated when someone has a problem with a plant and I ask what I think is a pretty simple, straight-forward question -- what's the name of the plant?

I think that if you care about the plants in your realm, you should have the wherewithall to find out what you have, what its requirements are, and then proceed to give it the care it needs. Of course, if you don't care, then just skip to the next post.

I had a visitor drop by the other day and ask 'Why isn't my lilac blooming?'. I ran down the list of the reasons why I thought. He said 'Just go out and take a look at it'. So I did.

He didn't have a lilac on site.

Not to ramble on, but I do think that knowing a scientific name every once in a while is not plant snobbery. It just shows you've taken the time to find out and that you care. If I hear 'Hy-geranium' one more time, I think I'll have to go prune something.....

Trees and Construction don't mix

More often than not, I am amazed by people -- around this area we have many people buying lake lots and proceed to build a new home. They intend to nestle this home among the large, old, mature trees and enjoy their new 'country life'.

A few years later, the trees die and they wonder if some disease or insect has killed them. Well, the disease is called bulldozer and backhoe disease (my term, not UK's). What amazes me about people is they don't realize that half the tree is under the soil. And this half is equally as important as the part they see above-ground. It may even be 'more equal' to quote another.

Plant roots need oxygen in order to survive. When a dozer makes hundreds of passes over a tree's root zone (which does not stop at the drip line), the soil is irreparably changed for the worse -- compacted, compacted, compacted. With no pore space for oxygen, the roots will die. When the roots die, the top starts dying back. The tree will eventually die.

If you claim to care about trees, think about the whole tree, not just the part that you can see.

Mimosa

It doesn't matter how long you work in a certain field, there are always things to learn. I'm showing my ignorance, but today I had my first experience with Mimosa Wilt. This is a soil-borne disease which only affects mimosa trees.

Leaves will begin to yellow, wilt, and then drop off the tree. On the one I saw today, sap was oozing out of the tree where it made 2 foamy puddles at the base of the trunk. There was a definite fermenting odor, not pleasant-- and June bugs, yellow jackets, and flies were eating up the exuding sap.

When I got the call, my first reaction was 'someone actually wants one of these invasive plants to live?'. Most of the calls I get concerning mimosa are 'How do I kill it?'. I wasn't prepared. But come to find out, this disease is very common.

Maybe I've never gotten a call about this since anyone with an ailing mimosa tree wanted it to die anyway.