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

We humans celebrate the new calendar year each January first. We organize our businesses, government, churches, trade groups and associations for corporate new years or fiscal new years and some unique cultures celebrate their own new year’s like the Chinese New Year’s celebration on various other dates throughout the year. Mother Nature has her own calendar and it varies a little each year based on the weather but the spring season, whenever it happens, wherever you live, is clearly the start of Nature’s New Year.  Instead of manmade fireworks that last one evening, or entertainment, dancing or other special short term celebrations, Natures New Year celebration lasts for weeks and is an annual progression of color and beauty as our trees, shrubs, bulbs, flowers and lawns spring back to life for a new year and a new growing season. When we last visited, natures new year’s celebration for 2008 had kicked off with the trumpeting daffodils, the cute crocus, the bold yellow flair of forsythia and the massive white displays of the flowering Pears. Now the show has progressed to luscious displays of salmon, hot pink and deep pink flowering crabapple trees, the beautiful red, pink and purple tones of red buds in our neighborhoods and the bright orange, red and white flower clusters of Japanese quince flowering shrubs immortalized in so many famous Japanese paintings. The spreading mounds of creeping phlox are covered with flowers as are the pansies and violas producing another round of pretty faced flowers.

As you travel across the state you can enjoy the white flowered sand plums and the native redbuds covered with flowers defining the natural creeks and streams across our plains. Each week reveals another round of plants budding out with leaves, flowers and the excitement of a new year in nature. There is a very special feeling of renewal and hope each year as we watch and participate in this annual process of the plant world springing back to life.  Nature seems to say the past is past and it is time to start again, to make a fresh start, to tackle the world with new energy and a fresh attitude. We humans could learn a lot by watching the iniative and “can do” attitude of the natural wonders around us and trying to duplicate those attributes in our own lives and giving a helping hand to the trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses around us. As with most things, the more time you invest in your yard and with nature the more lessons it will share with you and the more it will effect and enrich your life. Put down the cell phone while you are driving and enjoy the view. Spend a little more time each week walking in your neighborhood or parks and get out in your own yard and plant a vegetable or flower garden and spend a little more time communing with nature this year. It will be good for your blood pressure, your waist line and most importantly your spirit and soul.

Our last average freeze date across the Oklahoman’s circulation area varies from early April   to April 20 so we are within one to two weeks of passing that critical last freeze date. If you start planting tomatoes or tender annuals quicker be prepared to cover them with boxes, hot caps or blankets. Last year we got a hard freeze that caused a significant amount of damage April 15. If you want to be safe, spend your time preparing flower beds and then plant away after mid April except for the real heat loving crops like caladiums, sweet potatoes and periwinkle that do best when planted after May 1. It is now a little late to apply most pre-emergents on your lawn but you can use post emergents to control weeds that have already germinated in your lawn.

 Get outside and celebrate spring, the New Year’s celebration of nature.

The daffodils have lifted their yellow trumpets to announce spring is arriving in Oklahoma. These bulbs hide underground all winter with the roots growing and then green shoots literally explode growth from the ground that a week later opens to reveal yellow trumpet flowers and long tall green leaves. Other signs of spring surround us with the purple henbit we call a weed in our lawn looking gorgeous across the prairies, in pastures and along the roadsides where it flowers out as a purple blanket covering the ground.  It is another example that the same plant is a weed when growing somewhere we don’t want it and a beautiful wildflower in other environments. Our state has tens of thousands of ornamental pears, mostly the Bradford Pear that was widely used in commercial plantings and in subdivisions the last 20 years. These pears were some of the most damaged trees in our winter ice storms. In nature, life goes on and there is a natural attempt to recover and renew. Those some pear trees are now covered with white flowers, often so many you can hardly see the branches. Even the wounded trees are making a great effort to launch a new spring and kicking it off with a big flower party. The redbud trees are just flashing their first signs of purple, pink and red colors and will be very impressive over the next few weeks. Before the recent plantings of so many pears the redbuds would have been about the first tree to bloom out across the plains of our state and I am sure that is why our forefathers made it our state tree as they anxiously looked forward to spring and a new season and the redbuds announced its arrival. Forsythia is one of the first of the flowering shrubs to launch into flower each spring and their long arching branches of bright yellow flowers always lead the way into a new growing season of rebirth and renewal.

When I was growing up I remember old time gardeners using forsythia blooming as the best indicator of when to apply pre-emergence weed killers or weed and feed products to your lawn to control crabgrass and other summer weeds before they germinate. They were right and that is still a good indicator so you should tackle that project right away.  The old timers and especially the transplanted Irishmen said March 17 or Saint Patrick’s Day was a good time to plant potatoes and they were right. We Americans eat an average of 200 pounds of potatoes per year. Food prices are all up this year so this is a good year to grow some of your own vegetables and berries. Now is the time to plant onions, potatoes, asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, other berries and many vegetable seeds.

The old timers often said to start planting your color plants and warm season vegetables right after Easter.  That is bad advice this year as we have a very early Easter this year, about as early as it is possible to have on our calendar. Last year we got a bad killing freeze on April 15 which was a little later than our last average freeze date of April 7. You should wait to plant tomatoes, peppers, petunias, marigolds, impatiens and other warm season plants until April 15 or after. If you are determined to plant early make sure to have some wall-o-water, hot kaps, boxes, sheets or other covers ready to put over and protect your crops at night from low temperatures. These covers will usually work on a light frost but if we get a heard freeze you probably will get to start over.

Enjoy the Easter lilies this week and have a wonderful Easter Holiday as we celebrate spring and the season of renewal.

The spring season must be getting closer after the wacky weather of last weekend. We had gorgeous spring time weather late last week culminating with a beautiful Saturday, torrential rains and tornado warnings on Sunday night and winter snow on Monday. We wonder why it is a little more challenging to garden in Oklahoma and then we get a classic wacky mix of weather that reminds us why it is so great to be a human where you can go inside and not have to stay outside immersed in the full weather experience our plants have to survive. Your plants don’t have the luxury of selecting their environment. They get to deal with the environment and conditions where you plant them so that is why it is important for you select the right plants for the various conditions in your yard to improve the chances of gardening success. Spend a little extra time reading the labels, visiting with the staff at your local nursery or garden center or reading local or regional information in books or on the internet. Use these resources to select sun loving plants for sunny areas,  shade loving plants for shady areas, moisture loving plants for damp or poorly drained areas, tall plants for the back of beds or the center of round beds and short plants for borders.

The baseball season is just starting and the team manager has to select the player with the right skills to be the pitcher, the catcher, the shortstop and the other six positions. He also has to decide the batting order and make other decisions that often decide the success of the team. Think of yourself as your garden team manager. The more time and attention you invest into planning and selecting the right plant material the more likely you are to enjoy success in your garden. The key plant performance issues to consider include light, soil type, drainage and soil acidity or PH. Study the amount of light – full sun, full shade or the type of partial sun where you want to plant. Your soil type is important. Study whether you have a tight clay soil or loose, sandy soil or a good loam type soil.  Is the soil well drained or does water stand for a while after rains? Have you had a soil test and is the soil acidic or is it one of our more common alkaline soils? After you consider the plant survival and productivity conditions consider what size of plant you want to grow. Do you need a tree, a shrub, a vine or groundcover? Do you want annuals that generally produce more flowers and color or perennials that take less attention and come back year after year but generally only produce flowers or color for a few weeks of each year? What color foliage or flowers do you want to create the design you are envisioning? We need to wait another 4 to 6 weeks to plant most of our spring color plants but you can use this time to prepare your flowerbeds and to study and plan what you want to plant where.

This is the season for applying the pre-emergent weed killers to your lawn to kill crabgrass and summer weeds before they germinate. Now is the time to plant potatoes, onions and the rest of your cool season vegetables like lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and radishes. If you want to pick your own strawberries, rhubarb, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or any other berries, now is a great time to plant them. Fertilize your trees and shrubs and finish pruning all your woody plant material except for spring flowering shrubs.

Let’s hope for more beautiful spring weather and then use those pretty days to get outside and soak up some sun working in your garden.

Our State was blessed with a really nice soaking rain this last weekend that should help most all plant material from the farmer’s winter wheat to the dormant trees and shrubs in your yard.  Many areas were dangerously dry before this cold but thirst quenching rain.  Our days are getting noticeably longer and you can feel the warmth of the sun getting more intense on those cherished sunny days.  The sunny days, that feel like spring, actually get us excited about the chance to get outside and have fun and help make pretty things happen in our yard and garden.

There are many timely projects to tackle in your yard and garden during this lead up to spring.  For your lawn this is the best time of year to apply a good pre-emergent herbicide or “weed and feed “  type product to control your crabgrass and broadleaf weeds before they germinate.  Use a good product containing Barricade or Dimension and think of it as birth control for your crabgrass and weeds.  Barricade is my favorite, but it must be applied and watered in before the crabgrass or weeds  germinate or  sprout.  Dimension is the rare pre-emergent that also works as a post emergent on young crabgrass and so it is a good choice if you haven’t gotten a pre-emergent applied before you start to see crabgrass sprouting in a few weeks.  There are also five or six other good pre-emergents based on older technology that must be applied before the crabgrass or weed seeds germinate.  Some work better on broadleaf weeds and some on crabgrass so visit with your local nurseryman to pick the right product for your yard and the grass or weed challenges your lawn is facing.

This is the time to finish pruning on your shade trees, hedges, and summer flowering shrubs.  With all the ice storm damage to our trees this year there is a much greater sense of urgency to prune up the damaged branches and to prune our trees  for shape and balance to deal with how the ice has wounded our trees.  This is also the most important time of the year to feed our trees and shrubs with a good, well  balanced, fertilizer.  The roots are already growing and this feeding will help nourish the roots and maximize the natural spring burst of growth when our trees and shrubs leaf out for spring.  A good spring feeding for our trees and shrubs is more important than ever this spring as they try to respond and recover from their ice wounds.

Vegetable gardeners are in full gear starting their tomato, pepper and eggplant seeds inside so they will have transplants ready to plant outside in April.  You can plant many cool season crops outside right now including potatoes, onion sets, and plants of onions, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, head lettuce, and brussel sprouts. You may plant seeds of carrots, beets, radishes, peas, spinach, mustard, turnips, swiss chard and kohlrabi now.  We still have a risk of freezing for another seven to eight weeks but these cool season crops can handle some freezing and actually like the cool weather and will produce until our hot summer weather wears them down. 

This is also a good time to plant strawberries, rhubarb, asparagus, blackberries and most of the other berry crops.  Watch for the pretty spring days and make some time to get outside and commune with nature in your yard as you have fun gardening.

One week from today is the important Valentine’s Holiday when we celebrate romantic love. For all of us who get busy with our daily lives and don’t make the time to say I love you as often as we should to our wives, husbands or significant others this is an important date on the calendar to express those special feelings and to let them know how important they are to us. Throughout history, flowers have been one of the very best ways to say I love you. The beauty and wonder of cut roses, a spring bouquet or a European arrangement convey the international message of growing love and unmatched natural beauty. When combined with a special card with your own personal message of love few things work as   well as fresh, lovely, beautiful and inspiring flowers to convey your love. There are hundreds of choices of types of cut flowers or potted plants you can share with your loved one depending on their personal tastes. I was impressed with the buddy a few years ago who shared a dozen gorgeous long stem cut roses and a gift certificate for a live potted rose of the same color his wife could add to the garden later in the spring. He started this on their 10^th anniversary and by the 25^th anniversary they had developed a very personal and special rose garden of “Valentine’s Day” roses. Select the cut flowers or live plant most special to your loved one and gift it next week with a loving message and a quiet home cooked meal or a special night out at a restaurant and start making your own special valentine memories.

The beautiful spring weather like last weekend teases us into dreaming of the spring ahead. There are many things to start doing out in the yard including testing your soil and preparing new flowerbeds. You can start applying pre-emergent herbicide “weed and feed” products to your lawn to control crabgrass and broad leaf weeds before they germinate. Apply these in February or March for best results and the very best time to apply pre-emergent herbicides is when the yellow forsythia are in bloom. Now is the time to finish pruning shade trees, hedges and summer flowering shrubs. February is a great time to fertilize shade trees, fruit and nut trees and shrubs now before they start to leaf out for spring. Now is the time to spray dormant oil on fruit and shade trees for control of mites, galls and other assorted overwintering insects.

Valentine’s Day to mid March is the best planting season for cool season vegetables like onions, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, swiss chard, lettuce, peas, spinach, and turnips. It is also a good time to plant strawberry plants and asparagus crowns. 

Enjoy Valentine’s Day with your special love and start getting outside on the nice days to get a taste of spring.