Rodd's Seeds of Wisdom Horticultural tips and tricks from Rodd Moesel

What a wild weather ride we Oklahomans have endured the last couple of weeks.  We have experienced monster tornados, high winds, hail, record setting rains in central Oklahoma and are still enduring a terrible persistent drought in the west from Altus to Woodward to Guymon.

 As long as your plants were not flooded and held under water for a sustained length of time where the plant roots and leaves were not able to get sufficient oxygen most plants have really been enjoying  this moisture from the sky and  our moderate temperatures.  Our plants have been growing rapidly, are showing vibrant green color and have been branching and flowering nicely.  We are seeing some fungus problems on lawns and flowers with all this moisture.  That is a problem we have rarely seen in Oklahoma the last couple of years in our long grinding drought.  If you have blackspot on roses, mildew on roses or crape myrtle; mold, rust or rotting on other plants you can try to run them a little drier, improve air circulation or visit you local nurseryman to select a fungicide to help you get your problem under control.  We have also experienced a lot of wind damage to our trees and shrubs.  Remove the damaged branches as soon as possible. Make a fresh clean cut where branches are dangling or hanging or torn off.  The trees and shrubs will attempt to grow new shoots and branches to start to replace those that were lost.  This damage gives you an opportunity to rebalance the tree or shrub and direct and shape the new shoots and branches where you want them.  Use sharp tools to get clean cuts and consider using tree wound dressing to protect and seal the open wounds after your tree surgery.

The moderate temperatures and moisture are extending the 2013 planting season dramatically compared to the extreme heat and drought of the last two years.  We have great conditions to still plant annuals for summer and fall color, perennials for enjoyment year after year and new trees and shrubs to be the foundation of your landscaping.  This is a good time to plant Bermuda grass seed, sprigs or sod. You can still enjoy your own veggie garden by planting tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, pumpkins and watermelons.  Central Oklahoma has been blessed with so many regular rains we’ve hardly had to water yet this season.  That will change sometime soon so remember to check your plants regularly and begin watering when needed.  New plantings will need water more often than established plantings and container gardens and hanging baskets will need water more often than ground beds.  This is the season to mulch your flower beds to reduce watering by half, to keep soil temperatures from overheating and to reduce weed pressure.  Apply 1” to 3” of cottonseed hulls, pecan hulls, pine straw, cocoa hulls, or bark mulches of cypress, aromatic cedar, pacific Grade A cedar, fir, oak and pine in your choice of particle sizes.

 We had a fairly mild winter so we are starting to see lots of insect pressure.  Visit your nurseryman with samples of your insect problems to get help finding the best organic or chemical remedy for your problem.

 Many plants are flowering, fruiting and putting on a show.  Get outside and enjoy what the flora of central Oklahoma looks like when water has been applied.

Will real Spring with warm nights ever arrive?  In both of the last two columns I’ve advised we ought to be arriving at full planting season but to keep your eye on the weather.  Full planting season keeps getting pushed back with these unusually late cold fronts where we keep testing the 32° freeze mark.  2012 was the earliest spring in my adult lifetime and most of the state had no killing freeze after March 1.  Spring was about 5 to 6 weeks earlier than normal last year and all the greenhouse growers were struggling to have their crops ready as early as gardeners wanted to plant.  This year with the frost late this last week, that was about 3 weeks later than normal and about 8 weeks later than last year all the greenhouse growers are stacked up with plants that gardeners are scared to buy and plant with these late cold fronts.  The forecast, as I write this, looks like we may finally be past our last freeze date and able to plant warm season crops with hope and enthusiasm.  Normally May 1 is when we even start planting the hot blooded crops like caladiums, periwinkle and sweet potatoes.  They really need warmer nights to do well so I would plant them once the 7 day forecast for low night time temperatures is consistently above 50°. 

 Container gardening has been popular since the Gardens of Babylon and throughout the Greek and Roman empires.  Container gardening has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years as we do more outside entertaining, and use more patio’s, porches and balconies.  Container gardening works whether you live in an apartment or a house, are dressing up a church, school or business.  The dramatic increase in the number, styles and colors of available decorative containers has also helped drive the increased interest.  The larger the container the easier it is to manage the moisture levels and take care of your outdoor container gardens.  Some folks refer to container gardening as lifting the “planting hole” up out of the ground to where it is easier to plant, weed, mulch, water and care for.  A lot of gardeners with back problems or other disabilities are able to keep gardening with container gardens  that require less bending and stooping. Container gardens are easier to manage if they have a drainage hole or holes in the bottom to allow excess water to drain out.  If you are not able to drill or punch out a drain hole you will need to be much more careful to manage your watering and not overwater the plants.  It would help to add several inches of gravel, styrofoam pellets or perlite at the bottom of the container to act as a reservoir, if there are no drain holes.

Select the containers you want to plant, buy or mix your own good soil mix and then start planting with ornamentals, vegetables or a combination to create your own special garden statement.  We recommend a well drained soilless mix with a blend of sphagnum peat, composted pine bark, vermiculite and / or perlite.

 Make sure to water your new plantings thoroughly whether in container gardens or ground beds.  Keep watching the weather, but if there are no more mid or low 30’s in the 7 day forecast I recommend you start planting with reckless abandon and make time to really enjoy your spring garden.

We are so grateful for the soaking and renewing rains we have received across Oklahoma this last week, especially since the refreshing rains were delivered without storms.  This moisture is a great way to start spring and assures us a wonderful start to the season.  Moisture is a key ingredient for happy and healthy plants and when combined with warmer temperatures, brighter sunlight and longer days it creates the spring effect where the whole world of nature appears to pop into life, full of green foliage and exciting flowers on many trees and plants.  The flowering quince and forsythia have been joined by the ornamental crabapples and the enchanting pinks and reds of our state tree, the Redbud.  This is a great time to plant new trees and shrubs in your yard or landscape.

 Your shady areas can benefit from sowing seed of tall fescue or shady lawn grass seed mixes.  If you want to control crabgrass or other weeds the easy way, before they germinate, get your weed and feed or pre-emergent herbicide applied at once.  Every day you wait to apply your crabgrass “birth control” results in less control as more summer weed seeds start germinating every day.  Products with “Dimension” will offer some control for 2 to 3 weeks after germination.  You can do your first feeding on your lawn either with the weed and feed product or with an application of balanced lawn food or a targeted feeding if you have a recent soil test to use as a road map.

 If you are vegetable gardening we have just completed the prime season for cool season vegetable planting and are just entering the season to plant warm season crops.  Watch the weather and if you don’t see any frosts in the forecast you can start planting plants of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and cucumbers.  You can plant seeds of most beans, squash, sweet corn, and pumpkins.  Please wait until around May 1 to plant the really hot blooded crops like sweet potato, watermelon, okra, southern peas and cantaloupe.  Our last average freeze date in central Oklahoma is around April 10 but we have had the occasional freeze much later in the month so become a real Oklahoma gardener and watch the weather and be prepared to cover your more tender veggies if we are surprised with a late frost after you have started planting.

 We have been able to plant perennials and cool season annuals for weeks, but now as we pass the “last frost” date we can start planting most of our warm season annuals that provide the greatest color in our landscapes.  You can now plant petunias, geraniums, begonias, impatiens, zinnias, marigolds and hundreds of other color annuals to liven up your yard and container gardens.  There are a few hot blooded crops that will do best if you wait for May 1 when our night temperatures are warmer.  Those hot blooded annual crops that will benefit from patience include caladiums, periwinkle or vinca and ornamental sweet potatoes.

There is much to do in your yard now so take advantage of the longer and prettier days to plant your vegetable garden, flower beds and container gardens.  Don’t forget to make time to just enjoy the wonders of nature as the plant world “springs” back to life.

Spring officially arrived last Wednesday and the chorus of spring flowers is now several weeks into its annual show or program.  We have already enjoyed the crocus and daffodil bulbs.  The ornamental pears and apricots are just finishing their show. We now have the orange and red flowers of Quince, the bright yellow flowers of forsythia, the enchanting flowers of peaches, plums and crabapples.  Every week will unveil a new performance from our spring flowering bulbs, shrubs and trees staging their colorful spring show.  This is a great way to observe what flowers and trees you enjoy in parks, commercial plantings and other yards to help you select plants you want to add to your yard.

 We still have a couple of weeks left when we might get a frost or freeze so it is wise to wait to plant warm blooded annuals like begonias, marigolds, impatiens, tomatoes and peppers until mid April. Wait to plant hot blooded crops like Caladiums, sweet potatoes, periwinkle and okra until May 1 when night temperatures have heated up.

We are in the stretch run for planting cool season veggies so you want to get your seed potatoes, onions, lettuce, swiss chard, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli planted as soon as possible so they can mature before summer heat.  We are in the final stretch of the time to apply pre-emergent weed killers if you want to control crabgrass and other summer weeds before they germinate.   These will work best if applied before the redbud trees are finished flowering.  You can apply these pre-emergents as a weed killer only or as part of a weed and feed product that will also fertilize your lawn.  There are also several good pre-emergents you can apply over flowerbeds to reduce weed problems.  For flowerbeds, use products containing Dimension or Treflan right away to kill those summer weeds before they come up.  Do not use pre-emergent weed killers where you plan to sow grass seed, flower seed or vegetable seeds in the next couple of months as they cannot make the distinction between what you think are good seeds and bad seeds. 

Now until mid-May is the best time for planting tall fescue grass to establish a lawn in your shady areas.  There was a limited fescue seed harvest in Oregon last year so you may not find the specific variety you have used in the past but there are still many good varieties that have been tested at OSU and the other regional Land Grant universities for our hot, dry climate.  Your nurseryman can help you select the best variety of Fescue or Rye grass for your application.  All new plantings of seed or plants need water to get established and we are still very dry so you will need to step forward to assist your new plantings with water anytime we are not blessed with regular natural rainfall.

 As we watch the flowering shrubs and trees produce their spring flowers and see the parade of buds swelling and then producing leaves on our other deciduous trees and shrubs it often motivates us to plant new trees and shrubs.   This is a great time of year to plant new trees and shrubs for your long term enjoyment and beauty.  Most nurseries have their largest selection of the year in the spring season so the odds are good you can find the trees or shrubs you want and do your part to plant for the future.

This is a fun time of year!  We can almost feel spring in the air as the days get longer and the crocus, daffodils, and snowdrops all pop from the ground to unveil their colorful and magical flowers.  We have been blessed with some moisture the last few weeks and are more than ready to welcome more rain.  The early bird gardeners are already seeing growth in their cool season veggies like lettuce, kale, cabbage and swiss chard.  There is still time to plant the cool season veggies like seed potatoes, onion sets or plants along with broccoli, the green leafy veggies and the root crops like carrots, beets, and radish.  These cool season crops will do better and yield more harvest the quicker you plant them.  If you wait too long these cool season crops will have to battle our hot summer heat and will produce less fresh produce to enjoy at your table and to share with family and friends.  Growing up, we always said to plant these cool season crops from Valentine’s Day to St Patrick’s Day for best results.  You can plant the cool season crops all the way into early April but the sooner you plant them the more produce you will get.  This is also the stretch run for planting bare root strawberries, grapes, blackberries, raspberries, and the many other fruits and berry crops.  You will still be able to plant those crops later if you invest in container grown plants, but the window for bare root planting is closing over the next couple of weeks.  

We still have about a month until our last average frost date so we all need to exercise patience on the warm season veggies and annual color crops. Unless you have your own greenhouse, are prepared to go to extreme measures to provide frost protection to your early crops, plant in containers you can bring in on cool days or believe we are in for a repeat of last year when everything was over 4 weeks early and the early gardening “Sooners” actually got away with their very early plantings; practice patience.

 We now have an extra hour of daylight every evening after the “spring forward” clock movement this past weekend so you can satisfy your planting instincts by preparing the soil in your existing flowerbeds, preparing new flowerbeds or gardens, planting perennials, shrubs and trees.  We have lost or damaged many trees and shrubs across our state the last few years between the ice storms, hard winter freezes, extreme summer heat and the drought of the last couple of years.  This is a good time to select areas where you want to add new trees or shrubs to your property and to start planting. 

Gardeners always have to think about and plan for the future.  You needed to plan and plant daffodils and tulips last fall to get the uplifting and inspirational flowers of early spring.  You need to plan and plant potatoes, onions and strawberries now to enjoy their fresh food this spring and summer.  You need to plan and plant young trees now to really enjoy them in 5, 10 or 50 years.  Like humans, trees come in all shapes; short, tall, skinny, stocky, some do best alone and others in groups. Think about and envision what trees you want and visit with your nurseryman to select the right trees to frame and paint your property.

Don’t forget to apply your pre-emergent herbicides or weed and feed crabgrass killer right away over your lawn.  The sooner you apply these products now, the more of the summer weed population they can kill before they ever come up.