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

We have been blessed with a truly special and spectacular spring to date.  We have enjoyed some of the lushest spring growth and best spring flowers on just about every early season crop this season.  As we all prepare for Mother’s Day Weekend this next Sunday, we will be about half way through the traditional spring planting season.  There is still plenty of prime planting season to plant and enjoy most everything from summer vegetables to flowering annuals and perennials, to container grown roses, shrubs and trees.  In fact, our night temperatures are just now consistently warm enough to start planting the really hot blooded crops like periwinkle, sweet potatoes, caladiums and okra.  We have been very blessed with nice regular rains this year and nothing makes new plantings “jump” from the ground and grow like refreshing natural rains.  Be prepared to water your yard when we do go a while without rain.  Our Oklahoma winds can cause topsoil and container garden drying quicker than we realize and getting “too dry” can stress, burn or even kill our plants as we witnessed all too often last scorching summer.  New plantings are especially dependent on your supplemental watering until they get well established and reach their  roots deeper into the earth.

 Mother’s Day and flowers have always seemed like a perfect match.  Many of us have special memories of working in the yard or vegetable garden with our mother or grandmother.  We often know their favorite flower or plant, remember them growing a special houseplant in their kitchen window, cutting fresh iris or roses to bring in the house or harvesting tomatoes and peppers and turning them into culinary delights.  This next weekend is a special time to share with our mothers and grandmothers if we are fortunate enough to still have them with us or to remember them if they have already passed on.  Invite mom over for lunch or dinner  and give her a bouquet, a plant she has been wanting or that special decorative container or garden tool she has been hinting about.  You can give her a gardening book, a membership in the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, a gift certificate to her favorite garden center or a coupon offering to work a few hours or a weekend with her in her yard.

 If your mother is still alive, I hope you will be able to spend some time with her in person or on the phone this weekend and get to share some of the love and memories that make your relationship special.  If your mother has already passed, this is still a good time to remember her and maybe plant a tree, peony, rose bush or other plant in your yard to help keep her memory alive at your home.  I am blessed to have a very special mother, Marjorie Moesel, that helped expose me to the joys of plants and gardening very early in life. I deeply appreciate and treasure her loving support and encouragement of everything we’ve ever tackled in school, church, family and business.  Thanks Mom for everything and Happy Mothers Day.

We are being treated to an absolutely beautiful and inspiring spring this year.  Oklahoma has absorbed some bad tornado, hail and high wind damage in Woodward, Norman and the Altus area but other than the pain in those pockets of our state we have enjoyed beautiful spring weather blessed with regular soaking rains in most areas.  The early spring and regular rains have led to some of the biggest and earliest flushes of spring growth on most all of our plant materials from grasses to shrubs and trees and unfortunately weeds.  It is like all our living plants are celebrating surviving the terrible heat and drought of last summer and the extreme freezes of the winter that preceeded the drought by jumping from the ground with the energy of celebration and growing and blooming to welcome better times!  Let’s hope the rains, the growing and the celebrating last all growing season.

 No two years are ever alike and every year in the garden or on the farm when you are dealing with nature is a new chapter and a new experience.  Wine connoisseurs know that, as they debate whether the 1992 or the 2005 or some other vintage is the best. The same is true for roses, tomatoes, petunias and crepe myrtles.  Since each plant has different optimum conditions, okra, impatiens or any other crop is likely to have their best year at different times.  Some of the success factors we can control by amending and improving our soils, fertilizing, helping fend off insects and diseases and most importantly by supplemental watering and selecting the right new locations for the plants we want to grow.  Some factors are totally out of our hands like daytime temperatures, nighttime temperatures, wind, humidity levels, sunlight intensity and cloud cover and the type, size and regularity of rain events.  Every year is different  and a new experience.  That is part of both the fun and the challenge of gardening.  It looks like this year is off to a fabulous start and has a chance to be a “vintage” year for Oklahoma gardeners. Like farmers, gardeners have to be optimists to start fresh each year and plunge ahead into the great unknown of the new growing season without knowing what weather and challenges lie ahead.  When it works, few other things produce such great returns to feed the stomach with food and the soul  with beauty and a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

 We are only one week into the normal spring planting season so this is prime planting season for virtually all growing crops.  This is the time to plant your patio pots, hanging baskets and other decorative containers.  It is the time to plant bermuda grass seed, plant fruit trees to start an orchard, grapes for a vineyard or berries for a berry patch.  Plant herbs to start an herb or kitchen garden, trees for shade, shrubs to add character and landscape your yard.  This is the optimum time to plant perennials for seasonal color, annuals for regular color from now until the first freeze next winter. Few things are as satisfying as growing your own tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other summer vegetables and now is the time to plant all those fresh food crops for summer harvesting.

 Visit your local nursery or garden center, soak in the beauty and select some slices of nature you want to add to your yard.  Then sow the seeds, plant the plants, water them and get ready to partner with nature and enjoy the 2012 ride of the seasons with your plants.

Plant away!  Plant away!  It is finally time to plant all the warm season vegetables and annuals.  It is a great time to plant trees, shrubs, perennials, Bermuda grass seed and just about anything that grows! We have passed our last average frost date, the days are rapidly getting longer, the earth has rotated to where the sun is getting brighter and most all living things are ready for a big spring growth spurt!  Many of you have been making fun of me for encouraging you to be patient and wait to plant this year  but historically that was the right advice.  This is a year the early birds won!  They actually got away with planting 3 or 4 weeks early as we have gone weeks without a hard freeze or even a killing frost. 

 Now even the most conservative and cautious Oklahoma gardeners should historically be safe to plant our tomatoes, peppers, petunias, begonias and impatiens.  There are a few real hot weather crops that normally would do best if you wait to plant them until May 1 or after like caladiums, sweet potatoes and many tropical plants.  But this year, who knows, you may be OK even if you planted those weeks ago. 

 This is the challenge and joy that faces all farmers and gardeners.  We get to deal with lots of factors beyond our control.  We try to make wise decisions and then hope and pray for the best while trying to assist Mother Nature with a little watering, trimming, weeding and mulching to improve our crop results.

 Now that it is planting time, the quicker you plant means more growing season your plants can take advantage of, more spring rains they can enjoy and put to use, more cool spring weather they can enjoy and grow with before the challenges of summer heat.  Besides planting, this is a good time to feed your trees, shrubs, lawn and other plants if you have not already fed your plants this season.  You will want to mulch your flower beds with some type of bark or hulls before the summer heat and the sooner you do that after planting means less weeding and less extra watering.

Besides planting your vegetable garden to produce fresh food for your tummy and flower gardens to feed your soul, don’t forget to plant up and enjoy container gardens and hanging baskets.  Container gardens can really liven up your porch, patio and outdoor living areas to bring color and excitement to the areas where you spend much of your outdoor time.

We apologize for holding you back and wasting a full month of perfectly good growing season the way 2012 has developed.  We hope you will join us in getting outside and enjoying the great outdoors in your own yard.  You can beautify your property and enjoy producing your own food while soaking up some renewing sunshine and fresh Oklahoma air.  It doesn’t get much better than springtime in Oklahoma.

Spring fever is all around us and seems to grow by the day as the temperatures warm and the days get longer.  We still have a short ways to go to reach our last average frost date of April 7.  Most of the state has gone over 3 weeks without a killing freeze and none is currently on the forecast as this column is written. It would be safest to wait a couple of weeks to plant tender warm season vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants or color plants like petunias, geraniums, marigolds, begonias and most other annuals. 

It is getting late to apply pre-emergent weed killers or weed and feed products so if you haven’t already applied those, please do so at once.  We are also late for planting onion plants, seed potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and other cool season vegetables, If you are determined to grow a spring crop of any of those cool season vegetables that must be planted at once if you want to get a harvest before the heat of summer wears them out.

 This is a good time to sow seeds of tall turf fescue or other lawn grass seeds in shady areas.  Visit your local garden center to select Crossfire III or another fescue variety well suited to your yard and soil type.  Make sure not to sow new lawn grass seed to an area where you have applied pre-emergent weed killers in the last 2 months.  That pre-emergent may also kill your grass seed and prevent its germination.

 This is a fun time of year in the yard and as I drive around Oklahoma to enjoy all the beautiful flowering shrubs and trees decked out in their best flowers.  The flowering shrubs started with bright yellow forsythia, then orange and red quince, and now the sweet smell and color of lilacs.  The flowering trees started with Bradford ornamental pears, moved on to peaches and apricots.  Now the redbud and crabapples are in full color and are truly spectacular.  At this time of year it is easy to see why our forefathers made the redbud our state tree.  After a long cold winter these native trees in our landscape announce spring with brilliant displays of pink, lavender or reddish flowers cloaking the stems before they ever put on a leaf.  Redbuds are the Oklahoma version of what cherry trees are to Washington, D.C.. Ours are just spread out more instead of concentrated  in one spot like those in D.C..  It is getting late to plant bareroot trees, shrubs or berries but it is one of the best times to plant container grown or balled and burlapped trees. This is a great time to visit your local nursery or garden center and to select the flowering shrubs and trees, fruit trees or ornamental trees and shrubs to add to your landscape.

 We have been blessed with some nice spring rains and mild temperatures that make it a great time to get out in the yard and garden.  I hope you will make time to enjoy the greatest show on earth as Mother Nature gradually brings the plant world back to life, one plant at a time, for another great growing season.

Most of the state was blessed with some nice soaking rains late last week.  That is very good news for gardeners and farmers across our state as we need to replenish the moisture in our top soils and subsoils before we enter spring and summer.  Our ponds and lakes can certainly benefit from some additional rains as well.

Many of you are getting anxious with our warm temperatures and spring-like weather and wanting to plant warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers, petunias, impatiens, and many others. It is best to exercise restraint as the odds are still against us escaping another killing freeze.  Our last average freeze in central Oklahoma is usually around April 7 or almost 4 weeks from now.  It is best to concentrate on planting the cool season crops that need to be planted now, fertilizing your trees and shrubs and applying pre-emergent summer weed killer to your lawn and flower beds.

If you can’t resist the temptation to plant warm season crops  now please be prepared to cover and protect these crops anytime we are going to drop near or below freezing using old sheets, milk jugs, or Hot Kaps, row covers or cones of Wall O’ Water tubes.

It is a great time to plant new trees and shrubs after these good soaking rains when the soil is moist  and easier to work. Do not plant when it is muddy or soppy. This is the tail end of the planting season for many of the cool season vegetables we have talked about for the last few weeks.  For best success these cool season crops should be planted at once to allow most growth and maturity before the extreme heat of summer.  Leafy crops like leaf and head lettuce, cabbage, mustard, spinach and swiss chard, as well as broccoli, peas, kohlrabi and cauliflower should be planted right away.  Root crops like beets, carrots, radish, turnips, onion plants or sets, and seed potatoes should all be planted sooner rather than later.  This is also the best time to plant perennial crops like asparagus crowns, rhubarb roots and bareroot strawberries to establish long term healthy food sources right in your own yard.

We are in the final stretch of the annual window to apply pre-emergent herbicides or weed killers to your  lawn to control crabgrass and other summer weeds and grasses.  There are many good products available.  Visit your local nurseryman or garden center for input on the best choice to use on your type turf grass and for the weeds you want to control.  Most of these pre-emergents only work if applied and watered in before the crabgrass  or other weeds have germinated. Everything is sprouting early this year so the sooner you apply the more effective this “birth control” for weeds will be.  If you are concerned you are late to apply and your summer weeds are already sprouting you can use a product with Dimension that will still help control crabgrass for a few weeks, even after germination.

Our  weather has been unusually nice so hopefully you have been making time to enjoy the beautiful flowering yellow forsythia, bright orange /red quince, white Bradford Pears as well as the charming Daffodils and other early season garden delights.