Saturday, March 14, 2009

Kickstart Your Veggie Garden with Our Upcoming Seminar!

Join us for one of our most popular seminars of the year as we teach all you need to know to grow your own farmer's market.

Growing a Spring Vegetable Garden
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
7pm-9pm
Zilker Botanical Garden

Enjoy juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, and delectable green beans straight from your garden. Baskets of okra and armloads of squash can be grown in your garden! Learn how to plant and maintain a spring vegetable garden from Master Gardener Patty Leander, who will share her expertise on vegetable varieties that perform well in Central Texas, recommended planting times, and composting. This seminar is loaded with basic facts and helpful ideas, useful to both new and experienced vegetable gardeners. This seminar is free, open to the public and does not require reservations. Please arrive early as this is one of our most popular seminars.

This seminar is presented by the Travis County Master Gardeners Association, a volunteer arm of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Travis County. For more details, see http://www.tcmastergardeners.org or call the Travis County Master Gardener's help desk at (512) 854-9600.

Friday, March 13, 2009

What To Do With Perennials That Survived Winter?

Spring is upon us and perennial plants are beginning to show signs of life again. This past winter was a mild one and many of our perennials that did not die back are resprouting from above ground parts. Some common examples of such plants include yellow bells (Tecoma stans), plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) and golden dewdrop (Duranta erecta). Plants in protected locations are even more likely to have made it through the winter with minimal damage.

Gardeners have been asking how to prune such plants this year. Do you cut them back to the ground as usual or prune them only back to where the topmost growth is appearing?

The correct answer is...it doesn't matter! You can cut them back to near the ground and they'll resprout as usual and look great in time. You can also just cut the dead areas out and leave the rest. I generally prefer to cut them back to near the ground because if leave the surviving above ground parts the plants may end up larger than I want and may tend to be rather irregular in shape or "lanky" in appearance. But that's just a personal preference.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Texas Digital Diagnostics System Discontinued

For a number of years Extension here in Texas has participated in a Digital Diagnostics service coordinated through the University of Georgia. This service allowed us to send digital photos of plants, insects and diseases for identification, diagnosis and recommendations to a central location from which they were routed to various Texas specialists for assistance. After a close look at this service's level of usage across the state and the costs of the service, it was decided that our participation here in Texas should be discontinued.

That said, I want to assure our clients here in Travis County that we still offer a diagnostic service free of charge. You can send digital photos in clear, sharp focus to: travismg@ag.tamu.edu. Our Master Gardener e-diagnostic team with assistance from staff in our office will identify or diagnose plants, insects, disease or other plant problems. If we are unable to do this we then send the photos via e-mail to specific AgriLife Extension specialists across the state for their input. All in all the discontinuation of the statewide service should have no negative effect on our ability to serve our clientele here in Travis County.

If you wish to send in a photo include information that would be helpful in diagnosing the problem such as age of plant, species/cultivar, any care provided (watering schedule, fertilizing, pest control), herbicides or weed and feed products used near plant, any soil disturbance (trenching or construction) done within the branch spread of a tree, etc. Keep in mind that you can also bring plant samples to the Extension Office for free diagnosis.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Learn about growing the best lawn possible!

Having problems with your lawn? Confused about how to apply fertilizer? Tired of paying a lawn service to take care of your grass? Come attend the Travis County Master Gardeners free seminar this Saturday, March 14 on How to Grow a Great Lawn and you'll learn all you need to know about growing the best lawn possible.

How to Grow a Great Lawn
Saturday, March 14, 2009
10am-Noon
Zilker Botanical Garden

With Spring just around the corner, it’s a great time to learn about growing a healthy lawn. Master Gardener Susan Decker teams up with Denise Delaney from the City of Austin’s GrowGreen program to give you the latest information on the care and feeding of your lawn. Topics will include choosing the right turf for your site, irrigation, fertilization, proper mowing technique, and disease diagnosis and treatment. This class is free and does not require reservations.

This seminar is presented by the Travis County Master Gardeners Association, a volunteer arm of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Travis County. For more details, see http://www.tcmastergardeners.org or call the Travis County Master Gardener's help desk at (512) 854-9600.