"Searchin'"

April 2015

PICKAWAY TO GARDEN

“Searchin’”

By Paul Hang

Remember the song by The Coasters? “Yeah I’ve been searchin’, Oh, yeah, I’ve been searchin’ every which a-way.” Now that the gardening season is at the door I’ve been searching for gardening information.  April is a month where the battle for spring promises to be won. Unlike May, when we know the battle has been won, in April there is light at the end of the tunnel. Signs of warmer weather are increasingly abundant. Some trees are beginning to bloom but their flowers are pretty insignificant. We can see a blush of color, usually a mist of green, bronze or red in the woods. Spring bulbs are blooming. Birds are beginning to really sing, not just calling or warming up their voices. Robins are patrolling the lawn like so many community service people spearing litter along the roadside. Goldfinches are showing their true colors as they annually live up to their names. I think we can be confident that the seasonal battle will be won.

Speaking of battles, we have all been taught that the time to apply a pre-emergent herbicide on our lawns is when the forsythia blooms. My searching turned up a better way. Research by J.Cardina, C.Herms and D. Herms has shown that a good target event for applying a pre-emergent herbicide is when the first bloom appears on Bradford callery pear. That is the tree we see widely planted along our streets with white blooms and the well-deserved reputation of splitting off limbs in storms. It has also been found to be invasive. When common lilac or Ohio buckeye begins to bloom it is too late for a pre-emergent herbicide to be effective and too early for a post-emergent herbicide to be effective. Don’t waste the herbicide or your money by applying a chemical that won’t be effective.

To find out how much warmth it takes to bring on the bloom of certain plants you can go to www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/gdd. This site will ask for your Ohio zip code. It will then tell you what the present value is of growing degree days (gdd) and the corresponding plant that is in bloom. The information can help in planning your battle with pests.

Scientists base their finding on facts. When new facts arise to contradict conventional wisdom, they revise their findings. Science provides emerging truth. OSU Extension offers many resources for home gardeners based on science performed at land grant universities. When using the internet to find gardening information, use websites ending in edu for research based information. If you use “you tube” make sure the video you’re watching is coming from a university.

 

 Here are the sites to search for Ohio and surrounding states:

www.ohioline.edu.osu, (Michigan)www.migarden.msu.edu, (Kentucky)www.uky.edu/hort, (Pennsylvania)www.extension.psu.edu, (Indiana)www.extension.purdue.edu, (West Virginia)www.ext.wvu.edu. And although not close to our climate, but a very good site, is Cornell University in New York www.gardening.cornell.edu.

 

Helpline. Pickaway County Master Gardener Volunteers will be available to answer your questions about gardening. Call the OSU Extension office at 474-7534. Your question will be taken and then a Master Gardener Volunteer will get back to you with an answer. You can also pose a question at the OSU Extension website, pickaway.osu.edu, click on the "Ask an Expert" button.

 

If you are a serious gardener or just want to learn more, make a weekly habit of checking the Buckeye Yard and Garden Line at http//bygl.osu.edu. There, local state experts discuss gardening issues which are in the form of a newsletter.

 

The Circleville Pumpkin Growers will offer a “How To” session that will explain the techniques they use to grow giant pumpkins. The session will be held April 11 at 1:30pm in the Pumpkin Show office on Franklin Street. Those who attend and request them will receive free plants on May 16 at 1:30 in the Pumpkin Show Office.

.April 16^th is Ralph C. Starkey Community Action Day. One of the activities will be held at Mary Virginia Crites Hanna Park. The volunteers will work to remove as many invasive plant species growing in the woods as we can. Come join students from Ohio Christian University, local high schools and others. Bring loppers and pruning saws if you have them.

Things to do in the garden:

Time spent on your lawn now will benefit it the rest of the year. Fertilize lightly. Now is the time to re-seed once night time temps consistently reach 50 degrees. This is also the time to aerate lawns. April is usually the time to apply a pre-emergent (but not if you plan to seed) to prevent crabgrass (see earlier notice on Bradford callery pear). Leave those first clippings on the lawn. Their nitrogen content is high. Mowing height at least three inches will retard the growth of crab grass and other weeds.

Unless you are prepared to cover plants in case of frost, don’t put out those tender plants such as tomatoes and peppers until mid-May or later when the soil warms up. The average last frost date is now April 23rd. There is a 50/50 chance of frost then and the chance decreases about 10% per week after that. Spring flowering bulbs should be fertilized after they bloom. Remember to leave the leaves of bulbs until they yellow. Brown is better. Also prune spring blooming shrubs after they bloom. If April brings its overhyped showers don’t dig in our clay soils until they dry out a bit. If they seem wet enough to make a clay pot, wait. Don’t apply mulch until May. Allow the soil to warm.

Cut back your ornamental grasses to a couple inches. Cut back your butterfly bushes (buddleia) to a foot or two and apply a balanced fertilizer. Pull those bag worms, or better, cut them off. Do it now before the worms hatch out. Dispose of the bags in the trash or bury them. One bag left equals a hundred plus new bags that won’t show themselves until this fall.

It's not too late to start tender plant seeds indoors to be placed in the garden later, after hardening them off, and the danger of frost is past. Tomato seedlings should be moved from the cells after 4 weeks into a larger pot or into the garden (if weather permits). As usual make sure you water in the transplants. When you water, water deeply (top six inches wet) and water the base of the plant not the foliage. Water when the plants need it, not every day. Most plants require 1 to 1 and a half inches of water per week.