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

Fall officially began last Sunday and it even feels a little like fall now as we enjoy slightly cooler 80 degree days and 60 degree nights. The days are getting shorter with the arrival of fall and now is the time to engage in full scale fall gardening. This is one of the most pleasant times of year to be outside in the yard to enjoy the annuals you planted this spring and the perennials you have planted over the years. Besides enjoying your existing gardens this is an excellent time to plant new trees and shrubs in your landscape.

Container grown trees and shrubs can be planted most anytime of the year but fall plantings often have the highest success rate as they can get well established and rooted into their new soil home before having to endure our hot and dry summer weather next year. New plantings always need to be watered but there is not as much pressure to water fall plantings as often. The fall and winter weather is not as hot and does not cause as much evaporation and dehydration. If you have been wanting to add more trees or shrubs to your yard this is a good time to get some healthy garden exercise to dig holes and plant more trees in your yard. Remember to dig a hole about twice as large as needed and amend the soil by mixing about one third sphagnum peat moss or other good organic matter with the natural soil. Then place some of the amended soil back in the hole to the proper depth. Do not plant the trees too deep. Plant it so that the top of the soil matches the top of the existing ball of soil.  Put your new tree or shrub in the hole and back fill with the amended soil. Water the new plantings thoroughly to soak the rootball and surrounding backfill. Water periodically this fall and winter when the soil is dry and get ready for years of enjoyment from your new trees and shrubs. I am getting ready to plant several new bald cypress and caddo maple trees in my yard this next week. Trees are one of the greatest things we can do to improve our home and the environment and to leave as a legacy. Each tree helps clean up the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide and air pollutants and produces large quantities of clean filtered oxygen. Well placed trees and shrubs can also reduce our energy use by providing natural windbreaks and natural cooling to reduce home air conditioning and heating costs. As an extra bonus they can transform the appearance and beauty of your house, improve the resale value and make outdoor living much more pleasant and inviting.

The use of fall color plants has really grown over the years and we have many great choices to add an exciting splash of seasonal color to your yard. Hardy mums have been the star attraction of the fall garden for years. There are hundreds of varieties and colors to choose from with many new varieties introduced each year. Some varieties are already in full flower while other varieties are just showing their first color. They will be quite showy up through our first hard freeze although the flowers may be bronzed or slightly burned with the first light frosts in late October. If you are entertaining during the next few weeks or just want a special burst of fall color nothing can compare with the mounds of colorful flowers from fall chrysanthemums or hardy mums. Hardy mums bloom naturally with short days and are perennials that usually come back year after year. They will bloom naturally in future fall seasons as long as they are not planted under street lights or security lights that extend the daylength.

The early pansy crops are now ready and on display at most all the nurseries and garden centers. Unlike the hardy mums which freeze back and die for the season with the first hard freeze the pansies will keep growing and flowering all through the winter. These are available in lots of bright colors so you can plant the color pattern of your choice. I especially enjoy the varieties that have two distinct colors on their flower face, yellow with black, purple with yellow or other fun combinations. Fall planted pansies do best planted in the full sun or mostly sunny locations. With regular watering and an occasional feeding they will grow and produce flowers throughout the winter and into mid spring when the extended daylength and warmer temperatures will start to wear them out. Next spring it is best to replace them with new spring annuals to give you spring and summer color. I especially enjoy pansies in full bloom peeking through light winter snows or looking cheerful during depressing winter cold spells.

When you are at the garden center don’t forget to select some spring flowering bulbs to plant this fall so your can enjoy tulips, hyacinths and my favorites, crocus and daffodils next spring.  We offer a special Oklahoma welcome to over four hundred garden writers from all over the United States that are here in Oklahoma City the next four days for their national meeting. A special thank you to all the Oklahomans who are sharing their yards and gardens and hospitality to welcome these good folks to our state for this national event as we celebrate our state’s centennial and Oklahoma gardening.

The football season is in full swing, schools are all back in session, the first few “cold” fronts have passed through and the state fair is starting so we know that means fall has arrived in Oklahoma. Fall is a great season in the yard or garden to enjoy all your annuals as they get re-energized with the cooler weather and produce another round of beautiful flowers. The tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables often bounce back to life after the summer heat and produce a bumper crop of fresh food. Many of your trees, shrubs and perennials produce another flush of growth before they prepare for the first freezes of the fall in late October or early November.

In addition to enjoying another round of flowers on your lovely crepe myrtles, altheas and roses and the bright colors of all your annuals, now is the time to enjoy the special flowers of fall. Probably no other plant is so associated with autumn as the chrysanthemum or hardy mum. You can buy them already in bud or flower and enjoy them throughout your yard up until the first hard freeze. They do great in the full sun in your front flowerbeds, in beds around your patio or in large container gardens. Hardy mums are heavy drinkers and will need more water than most other plants yet good drainage is still important. There are hundreds of hardy varieties well suited to our state in all tones of red, burgundy, yellow, purple, bronze, pink and white. They are available in the traditional cushion mums and the new large mound Belgian varieties. They also come in many flower styles including traditional, daisy and spoon shaped mums. Hardy mums will freeze back to the ground after the first hard freeze but the perennial or hardy varieties will sprout out from the roots next spring and bloom again next fall. Some folks like to plant asters for fall color to complement or in place of hardy mums. It is still a little early for pansies, ornamental kale and cabbage but they are very special plants great for providing late fall and even winter color. Pansies will survive light or moderate freezes and keep flowering and producing color right through the winter. We will talk more about them in our next column after it has cooled down a tad more.

This is the season to shop for your spring flowering bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, crocus, daffodils, Dutch iris and the many specialty bulb crops. Shop early to get the biggest, firmest bulbs in the varieties and colors you want. They should be planted over the next two months for best results next spring. Plant them with a little bit of bulb food, bone meal or blood meal and the roots will grow all winter. They will sprout from the ground early next spring to deliver the first exciting splash of color after our long cold winter. Daffodils are especially good to add to your landscape in Oklahoma as they will often naturalize and come back year after year where tulips usually need to be replaced every year or two with new bulbs.

This is the time to do your final feeding for this growing season on your trees, shrubs and lawn. This feeding can help with root growth to prepare your trees and shrubs for winter. As we discussed in our last visit we are nearing the end of the prime time to apply a fall weed and feed fertilizer with a pre-emergence herbicide or weed killer to your lawn to kill winter weeds before they germinate. I prefer products containing Barricade or Dimension but there are many good herbicides to choose from. The sooner you apply this product the more effective it will be since a pre-emergent can not kill weeds like henbit and chickweed once they have sprouted.

If you want to seed a tall fescue or perennial ryegrass lawn in order to have a green lawn this winter you should sow that seed over the next few weeks. Tall fescue seed germinates in 8 to 12 days after sowing and watering. You can plant fescue in the shade or partial shade for year round turf or over-seed in sunny turf areas to get green winter color for your lawn. You can plant a blended seed mix that includes several fescue varieties well adapted to our area or a single proven variety like Crossfire II or Wolfpack at a rate of eight to ten pounds of seed per 1000 square feet. 

This is one of the best times of the year to plant container grown trees and shrubs. “Fall is for Planting” was an industry campaign promoted for many years to encourage more trees and shrub planting in the fall. Fall plantings allow the roots to get well established before the heat and extra water requirements of our Oklahoma summers. Fall tree and shrub plantings often experience the highest success rate as they adapt and get established quicker in their new home. Take time from your busy schedule to get outside and enjoy your fall garden and the many wonders of nature at this special time of year.

Henbit, chickweed, annual bluegrass, smooth brome and shepherd purse winter weeds have not sprouted in your lawn yet but now is the time to prevent them. The best time to control these winter weeds is between mid August and the end of September each year with a pre-emergent herbicide. Think of the pre-emergent herbicide as birth control for your winter weeds. The seed is still there but the herbicide creates a barrier at the soil surface. This barrier prevents most of the weed seeds from germinating. Once the seeds have germinated the pre-emergent herbicide will not be effective so that is why it is important to apply it early enough to stop the seeds from sprouting. We have been so moist this year that some of these seeds may sprout earlier than normal. This year it is probably a good idea to apply the pre-emergent as soon as possible. Once the seeds have germinated the pre-emergent herbicide will no longer be effective and you will have to use a post-emergent to burn back and control these cool season weeds.

Herbicide, by the way, is a term descended from latin that means to kill herbs or weeds. Most of these winter weeds germinate when the temperatures start to cool and there is sufficient moisture for sprouting. The cool season weeds don’t grow real fast in the early winter but get well rooted and surge in growth in late winter and early spring when the temperatures start to rise again. In the early spring when winter weeds are well established they actually can compete with your desired lawn grasses for space, light, moisture and food. This can weaken your bermuda or chosen turf grass and can result in bare spots, stunting or leave your lawn more susceptible to invasions by crabgrass or summer weeds.

Your pre-emergent will be most effective if you mow the lawn before applying and remove debris and lawn clippings if very thick. The goal is to get the herbicide granules or spray through the turf foliage and to the surface of the soil. The pre-emergent works best if you get a half inch or more of rain within forty-eight hours of application. If it doesn’t rain within two days you should soak the lawn by hand or with a sprinkler to deliver the equivalent of a half inch of rain to water the herbicide into the soil where the weed seeds are laying and waiting to sprout. Most pre-emergent herbicides remain active for sixty to one hundred twenty days or two to four months. In some more severe cases you may want to make a second application in six to eight weeks for full control to next spring. There are many good herbicides on the market and it is always a good idea to divide the labeled amount into two batches and apply half going north /south and the other half in an east/west pattern to insure good even overlapping coverage. Most of the fall pre-emergent herbicides we apply in this area are available with a fall fertilizer and are marketed as weed and feed products. This is a good time to do the last lawn feeding of the season while applying your pre-emergent weed killer to prevent cool season weeds. Ask for a pre-emergent weed killer containing Dimension, Balan, Treflan, Barricade, Sulfentrazone or Simazine for best results.

This is also a good season to fertilize your trees and shrubs. Use a well balanced food where the three fertilizer numbers for nitrogen, phosphorus and potash add up to over twenty. This is a good time to lightly prune or shape your hedges and shrubs. Be on the lookout for fall webworms on your trees and shrubs and spray with carbaryl (Sevin) or bacillus thuringiensis (Dipel) for control if you are not able to just cut off and throw away the webbed branches. If you plan to sow tall fescue lawn seed in mid September to late October you can go ahead and spray that area with a glyphosate (Round Up) product to kill the competing grasses and to get ready for your winter fescue.

For those of you doing fall vegetable gardens we are in the last phase of the fall vegetable planting season where you can still plant cool season vegetables cabbage, cauliflower, collards, garlic. kale, kohlrabi, leek, onions, peas, radish, rutabaga, swiss chard and turnips of the semi hardy vegetables that will survive several light frosts. You can still plant a few tender vegetables and still get a crop before our first serious freeze. That group includes bush beans, lima beans, cucumbers and summer squash.

As the temperatures start cooling later in September we enter the prime season for planting trees, shrubs, hardy mums, pansies, ornamental kale and cabbage. It seems like this year we have been zigging and zagging between a barrage of heavy rains and hot humid days. Celebrate the pretty days to get out in the yard and get some exercise while   growing some fresh food and beautifying your yard.

It has been a tale of two summers. The first part of our Oklahoma summer was unusually moderate in temperature and wet with record setting rains. The second summer arrived about two weeks ago and has been unleashing a study stream of triple digit blazing hot summer weather. It is amazing how quickly the transition occurred and how soon the change impacts we humans and our trees, shrubs and gardens. We got away most of this summer with limited watering as Mother Nature was providing the needed moisture on a regular basis. Now in less than two weeks of the punishing and searing heat of an Oklahoma August many of our mature and established trees are shedding leaves. They drop a few leaves to thousands of leaves to adjust the canopy they are supporting to the available moisture and root system.

Driving around Oklahoma this last weekend I saw many young trees planted this year or last that have gone from looking good two weeks ago to all brown or largely brown foliage. The shock of the intense heat and dry hot winds has blistered these new trees and shrubs that do not have established roots deeper in the ground where moisture is still available. You may have been able to get by without watering or sprinklers through most of July, a couple of months later than in normal years. We are definitely now in a “water” or suffer near death cycle for many of our color plants, container gardens, hanging baskets and recently planted trees or shrubs.

You can still add some container gardens to your porch or patio. I would refrain from planting trees, shrubs and flowerbeds in this heat unless you soak them in, mulch the top of the soil and are prepared and committed to regular watering for the rest of this growing season. It is amazing how quickly the topsoil dries out once we get these blazing hot August temperatures. Concentrate your garden time while this hot weather lingers on watering and mulching your existing plantings to survive and grow. Then you can tackle new plantings after the weather cools a little as we approach fall season weather.

In watching some of the PGA golf tournament hosted by our good neighbors over at Tulsa this weekend on television you could see how the players and crowds were sweating and burning. As hot as they were they could towel off, pour water over their heads or go stand in front of fans or go into air-conditioned tents.  Your turf, flowers and trees cannot move to get that relief and in this weather they are dependent on you to bring water and relief to them. Trees and shrubs can adjust how much plant they have to support by dropping leaves or even whole branches as they fight for survival but you can truly make a difference with regular watering.

When you water, water thoroughly so that you will soak the soil to a depth of four to eight inches instead of just squirting the plants or top of the soil. You can add polymer water absorbing crystals to your soil to help the soil retain water longer and reduce watering. I often mention mulching the top of your flowerbeds and container gardens and a two or three inch thick top cover of bark mulch, straw or natural hulls like cottonseed hulls, cocoa hulls or pecan hulls will cool the soil and reduce evaporation of soil moisture. Mulching will often cut watering in half while producing happier plants. Hand watering with a water hose or strategically placed overhead sprinklers can provide the needed soaking.

Use of weeping soaker hoses or installation of drip irrigation can help you grow better plants while delivering the water most effectively to the root zone of the plants. A good system can reduce water use by fifty to seventy-five per cent while growing better plants. One of the best ways to water new trees or large shrub plantings for their first season or two is a reinforced plastic bag from New Zealand called a Tree Gator that drips water around your young tree. You fill the fourteen or twenty gallon bag with water once or twice a week or as needed with a waterhose and it will slowly weep out around the new tree over an eight to twelve hour period so that the tree gets the full use of all the water.

It is time to start preparation and planting for your fall vegetable garden. You can also do soil preparation for winter fescue planting which should start around mid September. We are approaching the season to apply pre-emergent weed and feed products to your lawn to kill winter weeds before they germinate and we will explore that subject more in our next column.

This hot summer weather is resulting in a surge of insect problems. Red spider mites and scale seem to be especially active so be on the lookout for pest problems and visit your local garden center to determine the best chemical or other approach to keep them under control in your garden. The middle part of the day and afternoons can be too hot to enjoy being in the garden. We have fairly nice weather early in the morning and as we approach sunset so those are best times to enjoy the garden in August.

What a difference a year makes! Last year and the year before we were dealing with major droughts across Oklahoma and it was just downright hot and dry.  It seemed like we were having to get out the water hose or sprinklers every day or two to nurse our plants and yards through the punishing summer heat. This year we have been blessed with summer moisture beyond our wildest dreams, sometimes more than we can handle. We have had to supplement the natural rains with hoses and sprinklers only on occasions rather than on a regular schedule. Even now as we are heating up in the 90’s the humidity has been so high we don’t dry out as quickly. When the air is hot and dry it pulls moisture or dehydrates the soil and plants much quicker than during these current hot and moist conditions.

Our topsoil and subsoils had been so depleted of moisture the last two years that we had wondered how many years it would take to get back to reasonable levels. According to the Oklahoma Mesonet network with weather stations in all 77 countries, our topsoils are now replenished to good to excellent levels. Even our subsoils have mostly been recharged to good and excellent levels. If only our water aquifers could recharge that quickly but they take years, decades or centuries to replenish these important deep underground water reservoirs.

I live near lake Overholser and since late May I have gotten in the habit of visiting the dam several nights a week to walk, enjoy the amazing sunsets and watch the water levels from all these summer rains. The lake has been absolutely full to the top of the dam locks or to the rim of the lake bucket, as my nephew calls it, for several weeks. The last two years the lake had been many feet low and the city was buying water to add to the lake to meet our critical water needs. This year there has been at least one gate and often two or three gates on the dam open around the clock for over eight weeks releasing free water downstream that just won’t fit in the lake “bucket”. What a difference a year makes!

Making time to study and enjoy the beautiful sunsets the last couple of months relates a lot to our gardening experiences. When you stand on the east banks of the lake and watch the sun set on the west side of the lake across the water you quickly realize no two sunsets are alike. Depending on clouds, humidity and many other factors the good Lord paints a completely unique sunset each evening. The sunset painting or picture changes rapidly during each evening, never to be repeated exactly the same, particularly as the sun gets closer to the horizon. If you are snapping pictures of the beautiful evening light shows it is amazing how much it changes in just ten or thirty seconds and it can be a completely different show in a matter of minutes.

Our gardens work the same way in producing a constantly changing kaleidoscope of activity. Plants, grasses, trees and shrubs all grow, flowers come and go, fruit comes and goes. Bugs and diseases, rains and droughts, old age, lawnmowers and pruners reshape our plants as part of this constantly changing garden show. We may not notice the garden changes in seconds as with a sunset but the changes from day to day and week to week are significant. One of the real joys of gardening is to watch and enjoy the growth and changes in your yard and the individual plants on a daily or regular basis.

Sometimes we like something so well one year we try to plant it again and repeat the same show the next year. Sometimes it will be better and sometimes worse but rarely the same because the conditions every year are different. This year most of our plants have grown larger and are holding up better in early August because of our more moderate weather and the extra rains as long as you have well drained soils. Several of you have e-mailed to tell me you have your most vigorous tomatoes ever, covered in fruit while others have e-mailed that their tomatoes have struggled this year. The bragging folks are probably in sandy or sandy loam soils and they did not have water standing around their plants starving the roots of oxygen. The complaining folks are probably in clay or tight soils and likely suffered from poor drainage and a loss of a good oxygen/ moisture mix in the soil. 

Now that it has quit raining every day for a couple of weeks and warmed up we are transitioning from fungus and disease problems to insect problems. Be on the lookout for bagworms, mealy bugs, aphids, thrips and the like. We are warm enough now that you need to be watching for when to water. Applying a layer of bark or hulls natural mulch is almost always a good idea that is worth the time and effort. You can still plant container grown plant materials as long as you are prepared to water new plantings. Make time to get outside and work in the yard. It is good exercise for the body, food for the soul and it is fun and very rewarding to enjoy the constantly changing landscape.