Gardening with Tm

Pretty Little Poisonous Plants 

I was walking through the lower part of the property looking for materials to make wreaths to sell a few weeks ago, and was about to pull some vines from a tree, when this ugly thought came to mind.  Don’t pull that vine because it is poison oak.  Most folks do not realize that it is just as potent in the middle of the winter as it is in the heat of the summer.  It is also just as potent after it dies as it is while it is alive.

  My adorable wife can just walk by the stuff and break out.  When Jeremy was a boy, someone was burning a pile of wood across the road and he got the smoke in his lungs and off to the doctor he had to go.  Smoke inhalation from these plants can cause not only a skin rash, but also a nasty and painful allergic reaction to the lungs and nasal passage.  Poison oak, ivy, and sumac are beautiful, green vines that contain a very potent oil called Urushiol.  The danger of this plant is you don’t even have to touch it.  It can be on garden tools, gloves and clothing, or even an animal’s fur.  Doctors say that three out of four folks are sensitive in some degree to these plants and just because it doesn’t affect you this time doesn’t mean it won’t next time.

  The reaction to poison oak is not an instant reaction and may pop up in as little as a few hours to a few days or even a couple of weeks.  The rash appears as red streaks or patterns on the skin where contact was originally made and is transferred to other parts of the body after you scratch the infected area and scratch somewhere else. 

  Poison oak, ivy, and sumac all grow in this area with poison oak seemingly being the worst culprit around our neck of the woods.  Poison oak and poison ivy are both vine like with green leaves and are similar in appearance, with poison ivy having clusters of leaves in groups of three and poison oak having leaves also in groups of three that are shaped more like an oak leaf.  Poison sumac grows as a woody shrub and each stem will have seven to thirteen leaves arranged in pairs with clusters of green drooping berries.

  If you think that you have been exposed to one of these plants, wash the affected areas with cool water and soap immediately if not sooner.  Change clothes and wash them along with camping gear and any other items that may be affected.  Clean any garden tools that you may have been using to remove the oil from them and bathe any pets that may have come in contact with the plants. 

  There are many products out there that claim to help with the itching associated with these plants, but where one will work for some, it doesn’t for others.  If the rash is mild you can try some of these, but if the rash is severe, I recommend to go on and see the doctor.  I do not seem to be affected but we usually take Ms. Janet on to the doctor for a shot.

  I recommend to teach  yourselves and your children to identify these plants and remove them from your landscape.  If you are allergic or even think that you are, hire someone else to do it for you.  As the young lady in my last class at Ag Safety Day said “Leaves of three-Stay away from me!!!

What to do with those Poinsettias

  Christmas is over and what do we do with those poinsettia?  Well, we can throw them away cause they didn't cost much anyway.  That way we don't have to babysit them for another year till next Christmas, but hey what's the fun in that.  We're gardeners right, and we love a challenge.  Ok, Ok, so I do anyway.
  Here's what I do:  They are ugly and leggy, so cut off the red foilage leaving only the green leaves.  Keep them in spot where they get bright light and only water them when the soil is dry to the touch.  Chunk that foil wrapper thats on the pot too so that they can drain properly.  When it gets warm enough, usually about late April, move them out to shady spot on the patioand cut the stems back to about six inches.  When the plants start to put on new growth, move them out to get a little more sunshine and if needed, transplant them into larger pots so that they don't have to be watered as much.  I even plant pot and all in the ground to cut down on watering.  Fertilize them with a good houseplant fertilizer, I prefer organics, in April, June, and August.  I like to prune the longer branches back a little during the growing season to make the plants stockier and more compact.  On October the first, I  start the darkness, light thing to make them form the red foilage and set blooms for the Christmas season.  I do the darkness, light thing by putting them in a dark closet for about fourteen hours and then put them in the light for ten hours.  I keep up with this by putting them in the closet when I get home from work and setting them out when I leave for work.
  With any luck at all, TA DA, they are much bigger and more beautiful than last year, not to mention, you did it yourself.
  Happy Gardening and Keep Diggin' in the Dirt.

January Gardening Tips

   Hello friends, the new year has arrived and it's time to get that garden eady for spring.  The first thing I like to do each year is service all my equipment before I use it.  I usually service all my mowers, tiller, weedeater, leafblower, and chipper first.  I change oil and filter, clean or change the air filter, and sharpen the blades.  I also like to do a tune up which usually consists of changing the spark plug and draining the gas and putting in fresh gas.  Shovels, hoes, rakes, and other equipment should have ben cleaned and oiled before winter storage, but can be done now.  Hand tools should be sharpened with a hand file insead of a grinder for a better edge that will stay longer.  Cleaning is easily done by fixing a bucket of oily sand and thrusting the tool in and out of the sand to remove dirt and grime and rust.  Now you are ready to get busy.  First time starting should be a breeze and I like to let things run at an idle for a few minutes to loosen them up and make sure everything is runing smoothly.
  The tools that are most on my mind at this time of year are the shovel, hoe, rake, and tiller.  This is the time when I usually prepare any new beds by tilling them to a depth of eight to twelve inches deep and adding any amendments and then tilling again to mix them with the soil.  You can purchase soil amendments at your local garden center, but I'm a fan of collecting leaves and chopping them up with my mower and spreading them about six inches deep on my beds and tilling them in.  I am also a big fan of adding worm castings at this time to give the soil that added boost of nutrients.  Worm castings are a great way to add nitrogen to the soil naturally and it is considered to be a slow release type of fertilizer.  I do not recommend adding any fast release fertilizers to your beds at this time.  It would just be a waste of money in my opinion.  These beds that I am preparing at this time have already been sprayed with roundup last fall and had leaves piled on them since October.  These beds are also going to have roses planted in them.
  On the other hand, you can also prepare beds by doing a system that some call raised bed or lasagna gardening.  I am a big fan of this system also.  You can pick the spot for your beds and simply start to layer newspapers, leaves, mulch, pine straw, peat moss, and composted materials on top of one another.  I like to get this mixture at least six to twelve inches deep and let it set over winter and then plant in it.  This is an easy way to make beds and have rich loose soil for your plants.  I also like to add worm castings to this mixture as a slow release fertilizer.
  Therer are several different ways to prepae a new bed, but these are two of my favorites.  If you have questons or comments, send me an email or leave a comment.
  Happy Gardening and keep diggin' in the dirt.