Pruning Your Landscaping and Fruit Trees

 Knowing the right time to prune landscape 
trees and fruit trees is a key part of your yearly landscape maintenance. Late winter, at the end of the dormant season is generally the best time to prune most trees and shrubs. When pruning takes place between February and early April, the wounds on the plants are only open for a short time before new growth occurs and begins to seal them. On deciduous plants, it is also easier to see the shape of the branches when they have no leaves. 

While dormant season is the best time for

 pruning most plants, early blooming trees 

 and shrubs, such as ornamental plum, lilac, witch hazel, or cherry, should never be pruned in the dormant season. Instead they should be pruned as soon as they are done blooming in order to promote the new growth that will produce blossoms the following year.

Using the proper equipment is very important when pruning so you don't damage to your plants. Hand pruners are for making cuts up to 3/4 inch in diameter - bypass not anvil shears. Lopping shears are great for cuts of 3/4 to 1 inch. Larger branches should be removed using a hand saw or a chainsaw. 

Be sure to clean your tools often and consider cleaning after each cut to ensure that you aren't passing a possible infection from one tree to the next. Making sure that your blades are sharp will ensure that your cuts are clean and any damage to the tree is minimal. These small things will keep your trees healthier and your job easier. 

Pruning all of the trees in your landscape should not be a scary task. With some instruction, a little patience and a willingness to prune year after year, you can keep your trees healthy and and your fruit trees producing. It is important to follow the guidelines for the particular cultivar. When you start pruning, step back and look at your tree and visualize what the end product may look like. Start with the dead, dying, diseased, and crossed branches. When they are out of the way, you will have a better picture of the starting point of trimming and pruning your fruit trees.

There is a plethora of instruction documents and videos available online and, of course, you can go to your local Extension Office and ask them for help. 

Happy pruning!

Snow Mold

Yikes! What the heck happened to my lawn over the winter? The grass is all matted down and instead of a healthy, green color, it’s turned a sickly, grayish-tan, and unnatural pink. I have a few patches in my yard, but after a little research, I learned that it is a fungus called snow mold.

There are two types of snow molds: gray and pink. They each have unique characteristics, but for the average homeowner, you just need to know that they are psychrophilic (cold-loving) funguses and they thrive when snow provides a dark, humid environment. So, my snow mold problem most likely grew on my lawn, and maybe yours, because we got snow that built up on our yards and stayed around for a little while.

How do you fix it?
Fungicides are not typically recommended because most of the time the problem will correct itself. Instead, find all the affected areas of your lawn, gently rake the spaces, and remove all the dead and decaying matter. Give your lawn a modest application of fertilizer and it should bounce back. If you have a lot of damage, you may need to re-seed some patches in your lawn. Spring is a good time to re-grow grass and your lawn can be looking better before you know it.

How do you prevent snow mold in the future?
First, do not leave grass uncut at the end of the season and the final cutting, as grass becomes dormant, can be shorter to minimize matting. Also, avoid applying heavy nitrogen fertilizers late in the growing season. Once the snow begins to accumulate in your yard, remove or prevent snow build-up on grass, if possible. In spring or summer, check the amount of thatch in your lawn and consider de-thatching and/or aerating to remove thatch build-up and increase oxygen in your soil. Finally, adding some humus (compost) will help to build beneficial microbes and improve your overall soil and grass health moving forward.

Thankfully, snow mold is not a major issue to worry about. With proper autumn maintenance and the removal of snow when it comes during wintertime, you can avoid this issue in the future. But if you do get snow mold, simply address it in the spring and your lawn will bounce back.

10 Seed Catalogs Every Gardener Needs to Check Out!

 Growing flowers and vegetables from seed gives you more choices and saves money. Here are 10 great seed catalogs to check out. Jill Staake writes for and did all the work for us. The green links are live - just click & go. While the winter wind blows, gardeners everywhere turn to seed catalogs as they dream of the spring and summer ahead. The catalogs pile up, dog-eared and tattered, as growers plan for the future. Seed catalogs offer more choices than even the largest garden centers, and growing plants from seed is a great way to save money. We’ve rounded up 10 of our favorite seed catalogs you’ll want to have on hand as you prepare for the growing season. Tip: Want to save paper? All of these companies have websites, and many of them have digital versions of their catalogs.

Prairie Moon Nursery

If you’re dedicated to planting natives in your garden, Prairie Moon should be your go-to resource. They offer an incredibly wide range of wildflowers and grasses, with information about native ranges and growing tips. They sell most seeds by packet or in bulk for larger plantings, as well as bare-root and potted plants for some species. Seeds to Try: Milkweed, multiple varieties. Monarch butterflies need native milkweed throughout their range. Prairie Moon offers a dozen different species of milkweed seeds, covering much of the country.

Request a Catalog 

Select Seeds 

Flower lovers will revel in Select Seeds’ offerings. They specialize in fragrant, old-fashioned blossoms like those that filled your grandmother’s garden. Select Seeds also has rare finds and rediscovered antique heirlooms, like Job’s Tears (Coix lacryma-jobi), one of the oldest grasses in cultivation.

Request a Catalog 

Territorial Seed Company

Veggie lovers, rejoice! Territorial Seed’s catalog has more than 100 pages of vegetable and herb seeds and plants to choose from. Some of their offerings are truly unique, like oak trees inoculated with Bianchetto truffles so you can grow your own fungi delicacies. They also offer flowers and fruits. Seeds to Try: Goldilocks Squash, BuffaloSun Tomato 

Request a Catalog 

Burpee 

Flower and vegetable gardeners will all find something to love in Burpee catalogs. Burpee offers a bit of everything, along with a variety of gardening accessories. Seeds to Try: Royal Purple Radish, Fourth of July Tomato

Request a Catalog 

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds 

Heirloom seeds provide a direct connection to days past. Baker Creek sells over 1800 varieties of seed, specializing in types from the 19th century and earlier. A look through their catalog feels personal, as many photos include their family or employees showing off their offerings. Seeds to Try: Black Nebula Carrot

Request a Catalog

Johnny’s Selected Seeds 

Johnny’s is an employee-owned company that takes special care to ensure all their seeds meet the Safe Seed Pledge. Their breeders use traditional methods to crossbreed new varieties, so if you’re concerned about GMO, you can trust Johnny’s. They offer a large selection of vegetables and flowers. Seeds to Try: Sun-Fill Purple Sunflower, Goldie Husk Cherry 

Request a Catalog

 R. H. Shumway’s 

Take a trip down memory lane with R. H. Shumway’s print catalog. Charming black and white drawings illustrate the vegetable offerings, while the flower pages have color illustrations. You can visit their website to see photographs of most varieties before ordering, if you like. Seeds to Try: Pride of Wisconsin Melon 

Request a Catalog

Harris Seeds

Based in Rochester, New York, Harris Seeds has been a resource for gardeners since it was founded in 1879. They now offer a large selection of vegetable and flower seeds, as well as live plants, bulbs, and gardening supplies. Request a Catalog

Park Seed 

Park Seed is one of the biggest names in the business, and they’ve been in business since 1868. They carry an array of flowers, vegetables, plants, and gardening accessories. If you’re new to seed-starting, check out their Bio Dome System, which makes it easy to grow strong healthy plant from seed. Seeds to Try:  Green Twister Coneflower, Honeybaby Butternut Squash Hybrid Request a Catalog

Annie’s Heirloom Seed 

The founder of Annie’s began the company when she realized just how much better heirloom vegetables tasted than commercially grown varieties. She had difficulty finding quality heirloom seeds, so she eventually decided to start her own company. Their carefully sourced seeds come from around the world, with new types added all the time. Request a Catalog

 Sit Back and Dream...

It's time to check your overwintering bulbs

 If you are trying to overwinter bulbs (includes tubers, corms, and rhizomes) such as Dahlias, Tuberose, Amaryllis, Canna Lilies, Gladiolas - now is a great time to check them to see what condition they are in. Here are the main things to check:

#1 Check for Disease If bulbs are damaged in digging and not "cured" well while preparing them for storage, you can get a soft rot in them and it will spread from bulb to bulb, or tuber to tuber very fast. A fast way to check for this is to use your nose, the rot will give off a rather bad smell, once you detect the smell, then use your eyes to look for discolored material or material that is oozing and looks moist. Remove all bulbs that show the discolored symptom or are soft, you should also check with a master gardener to see is there is a fungicide that you can treat the ones not affected to protect them.

Canna lily rhizomes

Canna Lily

 #2 If you have put the bulbs in an organic bedding material, check it for moisture content - if it is damp that could increase problems with soft rot.

#3 Check the bulbs to see if they are wrinkling up which shows that they are drying out. Outside air can become very dry when it warms up causing a severe problem in over wintering your live material. 
Tubers such as dahlias are very prone to not surviving the winter unless they are in bedding material. If the bedding material is too dry,  it can allow the bulbs to dry out and die, of course if it is too damp then soft rot can be a problem. Newspaper works well for canna rhizomes as long as crinkled for good air space.

Gladiolus 

Gladiolus corms

#4 Check the temperature of the area you are storing them in. It should be less than 50 degrees F. and more than 40 degrees. It is very important that the bulbs do not freeze and if it gets too warm the bulb will start to grow and that can kill it. 

  

 Here's to beautiful blooms this coming year!