Welcome to the first edition of Good Gardening. This newsletter replaces Home Hort Hints newsletter. It is a shorter newsletter, but still packed full of good gardening information from University of Illinois Extension. This newsletter will be published every other month. I hope you will find it useful and interesting. Please send me your comments regarding this newsletter. You can email me at yiesla@uiuc.edu.
Sharon A. Yiesla
Unit Educator, Horticulture
Lake County
Editor of Good Gardening
This is the question on everyone's mind right now. After a long, dry summer, we would all like to put the garden hose away. It would be best though if we keep watering as long as the soil remains unfrozen and can accept water.
All of our plants will benefit from continued watering. Even if there is no top growth, it is a good idea to keep roots hydrated so they can stay healthy and be ready to produce new growth next spring. Evergreens especially need water since they tend to lose more in winter. Watering this fall will help all of our plants perform better next spring.
Apply about one inch of water per week and try to do it all at one time. One good deep watering is better than frequent, shallow waterings. Avoid sprinkling for short periods as this does not give plants enough water.
As cooler temperatures arrive, so do the insects. Some insects spend the winter as adults and they need to find a warm place. Your house is perfect!
At this time you may find boxelder bugs in the house. The are oval in shape and flattened. They are black with red markings forming an X on their backs. Young boxelder bugs are bright red.
Boxelder bugs will enter the house and spend the whole winter in cracks and crevices. They do not feed indoors and they will not breed indoors. They are primarily a nuisance. Sweep them up with a vacuum cleaner. Do not smash them as they will leave a red stain.
Other nuisance insects that find their way into the home in fall include Asian multi-colored ladybeetle, black vine weevils and squash bugs. Again, a vacuum will take care of the invaders.
If you have a fire place, do not bring firewood into the house until you are ready to burn it. Firewood may bring more invaders into the house.
Don't wait until spring to plan next year's garden. As you put the garden to bed this fall, take time to make notes on what worked and what did not work in your garden this year. Make note of places where plants did not do well, note areas where you need more plants and decide if this year's color schemes were pleasing or not.
Armed with a few notes, take time as winter comes on to do some planning and make adjustments to your garden plan. As the garden catalogs arrive, use them to fill in your design or pick new plants that may be better suited to your yard.
Another way to plan for spring is to properly care for and store tools and supplies. Be sure to drain and store the garden hose to keep it in good shape. Clean and sharpen tools now to save time in spring. Properly store fertilizers and pesticides. Take stock of what is left of those products and note how much you used, so you don't buy more than you need next season.
Now is a great time to start a compost pile, since we have an abundance of autumn leaves to mix with the yard waste we remove from the garden during clean up.
To start the pile, mix about equal amounts of carbon sources (dried leaves, twigs, cornstalks) with nitrogen sources (green waste from the flower and vegetable gardens as well as grass clippings).
The micro-organisms that decompose yard waste need both water and air. The compost pile should be as moist as a wrung out sponge. If the pile is too wet, air will be forced out of the pile. Decomposition will continue, but it will be anaerobic decomposition, which leads to odors.
The size of the compost pile can be important. If the pile is too small, it will not heat up and compost properly. If the pile is too big, it may be difficult to turn or work with and may become neglected. The minimum size for the pile should be 3 feet wide by 3 feet high by 3 feet long (any smaller and it won't heat up).
The micro-organisms that decompose yard waste, work on the surface of that yard waste. If we can increase surface area, we can speed up the composting process. Chopping or shredding the yard waste into smaller pieces will increase surface area.
Finished compost looks like a rich organic soil. The time it takes to get to this stage will depend on how aggressively you work the pile. If you put the pile together and let nature do all the work , it may take a year or more. If you work to make conditions optimum (correct moisture, increased surface area, frequent turning of the pile) you could have compost in as little as 4 to 6 weeks.
Holiday Plants: a Quick Note
As Thanksgiving arrives, the holiday plants do too. Just a couple of note on buying and caring for them.
Buy early to get fresh plants that will flower longer.
Buy plants with more buds than open flowers for a longer flowering time.
Keep holiday plants in a cool room to keep flowers fresh longer.
When storing bird seed, be sure to place the seed in an airtight container. Bird seed can harbor common pantry pests such as grain beetles and moths that can get into human food.
Still haven't planted the bulbs you bought this fall? Get digging soon. Bulbs are best planted from mid-September though late October.
There are always a number of disease problems in our gardens. Cleaning up the garden will help reduce them for next year. For disease to start, three things must be present–a susceptible host, the disease organism, and weather conditions favorable to the growth of the disease. Removing garden debris in autumn helps to reduce the amount of disease organisms in the garden next spring.
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