The Joys of growing Crocosmia Bulbs

'Lucifer' crocosmia

Crocosmia produce masses of sword-like foliage and brightly colored blooms. Originally from south Africa, their name comes from the Greek words for “saffron” and “smell”.  'Lucifer' is the most popular scarlet red but also they come in many varieties of yellow and orange. Why grow crocosmias? Few diseases or pests (including slugs!) seem to trouble crocosmias. Humans and hummingbirds alike appreciate the red, orange and yellow crocosmia flowers. During crocosmia’s typical mid-summer to fall bloom period, other flowers have finished blooming or are looking tired. Crocosmia flowers last well in the garden and in the vase...and also do well in containers.

Crocosmia 'George Davidson'

Plant these bulbs (more exactly "corms") in spring after all danger of frost is gone. Plant the corms 2-3 inches deep and space them 6-8 inches apart in threes. They do multiply so having more is always good. Place the corm face up in soil with compost. With our blazing hot afternoon sun in the Treasure Valley, put them in an area with morning sun afternoon shade - they seem to do much better.  They are drought tolerant and only need occasional moisture when very dry. Remove the spent blooms to encourage more blossoms. After blossoming for the season let the foliage die down naturally.

Crocosmia Prince of Orange

All crocosmias are winter hardy in zones 6-9. Some species, including Lucifer, are hardy in zone 5  If you are concerned about hardiness, dig them up, put them in a box with some sawdust and bring them in to a garage or somewhere it doesn’t freeze but keep them cool.

When planting in containers, make sure your container has drainage holes and good potting soil (not soil from your garden). Plant the corms as above, water and sit back. An easy-care flower, crocosmias are a wonderful addition to a Hummingbird and Butterfly Garden.  Plant some and ENJOY!                      

Crop Rotation

Planning for crop rotation is a must for any home gardener and will help with the health and productivity of your garden year after year.  From container gardening, raised beds, or garden beds, crop rotation plays an important role in the success of your home garden.  The practice of crop rotation has been found throughout human history in agriculture.

What is crop rotation and why is it so important?

Crop rotation is simply changing the location where you grow plants within a family, every season. The practice of crop rotation each season will help maintain the health of your soil and reduce the risk of plant diseases and pests associated in certain plant families. For effective crop rotation, a plant family should not be planted in the same area for a minimum of three to four years.

What is an example of a basic four method rotation plan?

For a home garden with four garden spaces, here is an example of growing four categories of plants by legume, root, leaf, and fruit. Each growing season the category of plants are rotated to the next garden space, going right to left in the diagram shown below.

For home gardeners with more space, rotation by family is another option for more complex crop planning. Here is a table of common vegetables and their plant family classifications:

To help keep track of your garden’s crop rotation plan, it is important to keep a yearly garden map or journal where plants are located.  It can be difficult to remember plant locations by year three or four; so keeping a record is important for implementing a successful crop rotation plan.

Although crop rotations for a small garden can be a challenge, ensuring plant families are not grown in the same area each year will lead towards a healthier and more productive garden.

Crop Rotation in the Vegetable GardenAgricultural Technology
Using Crop Rotation in Home Vegetable Garden

Early start this year for Turf and Tree Team

Our 2018 Tree and Turf team

With above average temperatures in the valley this early Spring, the local trees and plants are getting head start on their growing season. With that in mind, the newly combined Turf and Tree team of Master Gardeners from Univ. of Idaho Canyon County Extension office is getting its earliest start to the new year.  

We now have higher than normal volume from area residents giving us a call as well as emailing the team with their questions and concerns.

The new team got started back in early March with series of turf training classes taught by local University educator Rich Guggenheim. 

New sod being cut and rolled up

We followed the training classes up with field trip out to local DG turf farm. There, the owner, John went through what it takes to run a turf farm and different varieties of turf he has available.                         

     

Middleton fruit tree visit

With the classes and field trip behind us, we were all eager to get started. We had our first site visit out to Middleton to visit a local resident that had many questions about her recently planted fruit trees. She had many questions from watering schedules, to proper pruning and when to start fertilizing. We spent a good couple hour answering her questions and looking at each of her 20 trees individually for any unique issues or problems.  

    

     

The affected spruce tree

After the Middleton visit, we made dash down to south Nampa to another site to check out some Spruces that were feeling the blues. The owner had several Spruces that appeared to have dieback that was impacting his trees. The team took several pictures and small clipping samples from couple of trees to take back to office/lab for further evaluation. What's wrong with my trees blog Part 1

Here's Part 2 - The following Monday, the Turf/Tree team started investigating possible causes to Spruce tree impact including hooking up microscope to take closer look at needles. We also used several University “.edu” web sites looking for clues. During our search a new client walked in extension office door with very similar problem with her Spruce trees.  After giving her what we believe was the answer to the problem with her Spruce trees Rhizosphaera Needle Cast, we were also able to answer other questions she had on turf maintenance and how to get rid of gophers. We put together an email detailing each of her issues that was found thru Penn State and Colorado State Extension web sites. She seemed thrilled at the quick response to all her questions and concerns...and she left with a smile.

Well this next week doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down at all. We have several emails requesting more information from several new clients needing help with their trees and lawns. We are doing site visits to conduct LISA for a 20$ fee (Lawn Irrigation System Audit) if you have concerns about your lawn. Looks like we're going to have really busy summer.  So, till next month, keep on pruning.

Master Gardener Plant Clinics

What is this plant?

Is this a good or bad bug?

Have you ever seen a flower or weed or insect and wanted to know what it is? Or ever had your lawn or favorite plant/tree/bush suddenly start looking sick and wanted to know why?

You may not realize it, but expert help may be right around the corner!  

Starting on April 30, hours are Monday 1-4, Wednesday 1-4, and Friday 9-12.

Plant clinics take place at many locations around the area. Many are held at the County Extension Office while others may be at the local nursery or garden center, or at your community farmers market.

Idaho Master Gardener volunteers are trained to help you in plant and pest ID as well aiding in diagnosing what is wrong with a sick plant, tree, bush or lawn. 

For more information about becoming a Master Gardener volunteer or to contact our Plant Clinic, contact your local University of Idaho Extension office!

Is the way you are watering your yard creating mosquito habitat?

It’s going to be warming up and everyone will start watering their lawns with urgency. With the warm weather and water, come those irritating and possibly disease infested mosquitoes.

What do mosquitoes have to do with yards? When you over water your lawn the earth beneath doesn’t dry out and creates a perfect mosquito habitat. There are certain species of mosquito that will lay eggs in the damp mud and the next time your water comes on; the water sits on top of the earth for a period of time that allows the mosquito eggs to hatch. On warm days it doesn’t take very long for a mosquito to go from egg, larvae, pupae to adult. Once the female adult mosquito hatches, it looks for a blood meal. Yep, you and your family!

I would also like to point out that sometimes your sprinklers soak more than your landscape. Sometimes the water fills up buckets, flower pots, wheel barrows or other items left outside. This water then sits, heats up and then becomes stagnant. Female Culex species of mosquito love to lay their eggs in this water. This species can carry West Nile Virus and transmit it to you and your family with one bite. 

You can help keep you and your family safe by making sure you are watering your yard properly and that your sprinklers are only watering the things they should be and that they are not leaving puddles below the heads.

There are many published articles on the web about how to water your type of grass and how much water is enough...and the kind of pests that can flourish in unhealthy turf. A great publication for Idaho residents to refer to for guidance is The Pacific Northwest Handbook . 

The “Rule of thumb” that is widely used is: water as deeply and as infrequently as possible. This stimulates root growth resulting in healthy drought tolerant and pest resistant turf (like mosquitoes)! A healthy root system produces vigorous turf: rooting depth is determined primarily by genetics and soil condition, not irrigation! 

The Homeowner: The First and Last Line of Defense on Quality.

When it comes to shopping, my friends all know it takes me a long time to make a decision. I methodically research out what I want. Then I narrow it down to a few items. After I look over my choices carefully, I may go home to get on the internet and look at consumer reviews; I may go from store to store and check out prices. I look for quality and I look to make sure I am getting a product that is worth the money I am spending on it. I want to make sure my investment will last. Sometimes, my shopping experience will last hours, days, or in the case of a car or computer, it could be months.

My yard is no different. When I need yard work done, such as lawn aeration or tree trimming, I am insistent on high quality work. As a homeowner you are the first and the last line of defense when it comes to making sure that a quality job is done, and done correctly! Knowing what to expect in landscape maintenance and being armed with a small amount of knowledge as a consumer can play in your favor.

Always hire a certified professional to do your work. Would you seek medical advice from an individual who was not licensed to practice medicine? Of course not! Why then would you do it with your yard? I recommend that you check into the individual or company before hiring them. Do some homework. How have they been trained? Where is their certification from? Are they insured, licensed, and can they provide you documentation? Are they registered with the Better Business Bureau? If so, what is their rating? Drive around and check on some of their previous work. Is it the kind of quality you would want in your own yard? Ask for references. Ask questions! This is, after all, a job interview for the contractor. Just because they are the cheapest does not mean they should get the job, and just because they slap a business magnet on the side of their pick-up truck does not mean they know what they are doing!  In the following I will be talking with you about what to look for when hiring a contractor to do yard work and how certain procedures should be done. Armed with this knowledge, you will be better able to ensure the work done in your yard is of the quality you deserve for the money you pay.

Lawn Aeration is perhaps one of the best things that you can do for your lawn. Done twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, core aeration combats soil compaction. Soil compaction is a problem in nearly 80% of all landscapes. In addition, aerating your lawn helps combat thatch accumulation and reduces the amount of water you need to apply to your lawn. The reason for this is because when your soil is compacted oxygen and water can’t penetrate into the soil. Fertilizer can’t get penetrate the soil either. As a result, roots are often shallow, and the lawn will need more frequent irrigation. (1, 2, 3, 4)  

Core aeration removes small plugs, about 1-3 inches long from the soil. A single aeration using a machine with 1/2-inch diameter tines removes as much as 10 percent of the thatch if enough passes are made to achieve average 2-inch spacing between holes. Remember the key is 2-inch spacing. This may mean that multiple passes on the lawn are required. This small investment of an extra $10 will pay dividends in the end.   

What do you do with the cores after you have had the lawn aerated? That really is a personal decision. Some people do not like the little plugs being left on their lawn, although there may be benefits to allowing them to disintegrate into the lawn again.

If you do decide to remove them, they are great for the compost bin. Other options may be to power rake the lawn after aeration, watering, or simply running a lawn mower over the lawn after you aerate (although this practice will cause the blades on your lawn mower to dull). Once you have aerated your lawn if you need to reseed, this is the optimum time to do it. The best part of reseeding now is there is no need to top dress the lawn, as the lawn seeds will have nice little holes in which to germinate!

Another type of aeration being marketed by many lawn care companies these days as a replacement for core aeration is liquid aeration. While different ingredients make up this popular lawn service, the main ingredients seem to be liquid humates (organic matter) and sodium lauryl sulfate (soap). These are nothing more than snake oil remedies and are no substitution for the real deal of removing the plugs from your lawn by core aerating. There is no scientific research which has shown chemical aeration to be effective. You may as well throw dirty dish water out on your lawn. (5) (Cultural and Chemical Controls of Thatch and Their Influence on Rootzone Nutrients in a Bentgrass Green
Lloyd M. Callahan, William L. Sanders, John M. Parham, Cynthia A. Harper, Lori D. Lester and Ellen R. McDonald
Crop Science  

1998 38: 1: 181-187
doi:10.2135/cropsci1998.0011183X003800010030x)
The thing to remember from all of this is that you want to have your lawn aerated twice a year; in the spring, and again in the fall. The plugs removed should be 2-3 inches long, and on 2 inch centers, which may require multiple passes on your lawn. If you have further questions, please call your local University of Idaho Extension Office

TreePruning is something I take seriously. It is a science which should not be left to a novice and is far more than could be covered in one article. For me, spotting a bad tree pruning job is as easy as spotting a bad haircut. The only difference is a bad hair cut grows back and has no adverse side effects on your health. However, a pruning job can have enormous effects on the health of a tree, either for good, or for bad. When you hire an arborist, make sure they are ISA certified, licensed, and insured. To find an ISA certified arborist, visit http://preview.tinyurl.com/d44d9rp

The key points for a good pruning job really come back to structurally pruning the tree correctly when the tree is young. Improper or lack of pruning when the tree is young can greatly increase the likelihood of tree failure when the tree is older. Cuts on branches larger than 4 inches increase the possibility of decay and disease. If possible, prune trees when the branches are smaller than 4 inches in diameter.

When pruning trees, it is important to prune the branch back to the branch collar. Don’t leave stubs, or what I call “hangars” where you can hang your coat. Leaving these nubs will cause decay and disease to move into your tree. 

The last key component to pruning is to always remove a smaller branch back to the parent branch, never the other way around. When you remove a parent branch, unless the wood is dead, you greatly increase the risk of beginning the downward spiral of death and decay in the tree. While this is great for your tree-trimming company who will have to come back year after year to remove an ever increasing amount of dead wood from the canopy of the tree, it is hard on your pocketbook; more importantly, your tree's life is shortened! By knowing some pruning basics, you can ensure that you are hiring a professional who knows what they are doing, and will extend the value and life of your landscape. 
For more information, contact your local University of Idaho Extension Office. Our Master Gardeners Turf/Tree Team will be glad to assist you.

1. Carrow, R. N., B. J. Johnson, and R. E. Bums. 1987. Thatch and quality of Tifway bermudagrass turf in relation to fertility and cultivation. Agronomy Journal, 79: 524-530. 

2.  Dunn, J. H., D. D. Minner, B. F. Fresenburh, S. S. Bughrara, and C. H. Hohnstrater. 1995. Influence of core aerification, topdressing, and nitrogen on mat, roots, and quality of "Meyer" zoysiagrass. Agronomy Journal, 87: 891-894.

3.  Erusha, K. S., R. C. Shearman, and D. M. Bishop. 1989. Thatch prevention and control. Turfgrass Bulletin, 10(2): 10-11(Carrow et a1., 1987; Erusha et a1., 1989; Dunn et a1., 1995; Lederboer and Skogley, 1967; Shildrick, 1985; White and Dickens, 1984)

4.  Murray, J.J., & Juska, F.V. (1977). Effect of management practices on thatch accumulation, turf quality, and leaf spot damage in common Kentucky bluegrass [Poa pratensis]. Agronomy Journal, (3), 365-369.

5. Lloyd M. Callahan, William L. Sanders, John M. Parham, Cynthia A. Harper, Lori D. Lester and Ellen R. McDonald. Cultural and Chemical Controls of Thatch and Their Influence on Rootzone Nutrients in a Bentgrass Green. Crop Science, 1998 38: 1: 181-187

doi:10.2135/cropsci1998.0011183X003800010030x