Ask a Master Gardener
The Benefits of Garden Mulch
Now that most of us have our summer flowers and vegetables in the ground, let’s talk about mulch. We mention mulch quite a bit, but why is mulch such a good addition to our gardens? Here’s why.
For some people, mulch can seem more like an un-necessary cosmetic addition to a garden, but both vegetable and flower gardens benefit from a good layer of mulch. One of the reasons is because mulch helps protect the soil from our hot, summer temperatures. This provides a couple of benefits.
First...
Identifying Poison Hemlock
We’re starting to see poison hemlock and Queen Anne’s Lace popping up so let’s talk about how to identify these two plants and what you should know about them.
The first thing you should pick up from the name “poison hemlock” is the term “poison” in the name. It’s not just a nickname. While most of the toxins in the plant are in the seeds, lower stems, and roots, you don’t want to ingest any part of the plant since doing so can cause respiratory paralysis, coma, and death. Yes, that’s a pretty...
Growing Okra
I would be hard pressed to think of a garden vegetable that gives you production throughout the growing season that would top okra. Granted, there are different ways of looking at production quantity per square foot of garden space. Big melons like watermelons might tip the scale their direction and tomatoes can be pretty prolific, but as far as a plant that will give you harvestable food week after week, it’s hard to beat okra. And a good thing about okra is that it’s pretty easy to grow. The...
Squash Insects
Many of us love to grow and eat squash, but that endeavor does not come without challenges. Two primary challenges to successfully growing squash are the squash bug and the squash vine borer.
I’ve had problems with the squash vine borer in my home garden, but at the Master Gardener Seed to Supper Farm, our issues are mostly with squash bugs. So, let’s talk about how we can try to control this pest in an environmentally friendly way.
Squash Bugs
One thing to know is that if you have grown...
Growing Peonies
Peonies are putting on quite a show right now, but every year we get quite a few questions about peonies and ants, so let’s talk about peonies and whether those ants are good or bad.
First off, peonies do really well here and believe it or not, cold winters help them. For peonies to be able to break dormancy in the spring bloom, they need to spend some time below 40 degrees. But they can take it colder as they are able to survive winter temperatures of minus 50 degrees. Let’s hope that never...
Monarch Butterflies
In the United States, we have two monarch butterfly population groups with the Rocky Mountains serving as the dividing line. First, we have a group known as Western monarchs. These butterflies consider the west coast their home. During the summer they live in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, sometimes even venturing as far north as Vancouver, Canada. These Western monarchs overwinter in coastal areas of Southern California.
The monarch butterflies we see here in northeast Oklahoma...
Growing Sunflowers
On Tuesday we talked about gardening for birds and today let’s talk about one of our feathered friend’s favorites - sunflowers.
More often than not, when we purchase bird seed from the store, that seed mix contains sunflower seeds. But there’s no reason why you can grow your own sunflowers to provide seeds for the birds. Plus, you’ll get the extra bonus of these giant, beautiful flowers. I say flowers, but those giant flowers at the top of the stalks are actually a grouping of hundreds of tiny...
Gardening for Birds
Most of us approach our garden purchases with one criterion… that’s pretty, I want one, or two, or more. While this is an approach that satisfies our inner gardener, what if we were to be more deliberate in our purchases? What if we had a plan to purchase plants that are not only beautiful, but also help provide a natural habitat for pollinator insects or perhaps birds. Pollinating insects get a lot of attention but sometimes I feel like gardening to provide for our local bird population gets overlooked....
Winter Damage on Plants
Now that the trees and shrubs are greening up, what do you do if you have a plant that isn’t greening up like it used to? What if part of it looks dead but other parts don’t? Let’s talk about how to tell if you plant was damaged from the cold during the winter and what to do about it.
It seems like every year now; we are seeing more and more winter damage on our plants. Part of the reason for that would obviously be the colder than normal temperatures we experience during the winter, but another...