Goodness Grows in East Texas - Cherokee County Extension Office

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Kim Conway CEA—Horticulture
klconway@ag.tamu.edu
Goodness Grows in East Texas:
Container Gardening—Healthy Family Fun
Tuesday, March 19th, from 6:30-8pm, at the Woodman of the World
lodge in Jacksonville, we will take a look at container vegetable gardening. I will present the best vegetables to grow in containers, as well as
proper care and maintenance of the plantings. The entire family can
get involved and grow something delicious! Cost is $15 per person.
Welcome to 2013. A new year, a new garden plan, right? Or
perhaps just something new to try. All these weeks of cold
wet weather have given us plenty of opportunity to read our
seed catalogs and dream of all the tomatoes we want to try
this year.
In this month’s issue of Neil
Sperry’s Gardens, Bill Adams
talks about what grew successfully for him in 2012. And Bill
knows tomatoes. He has been
testing and trialing tomatoes at
his home for many many years.
This article is well worth a read,
and you are welcome to come
into the office and check it out.
Regarding cucumbers, he recommended Southern Delight
Burpless, Sultan Beit Alpha and Italian Seeds Beit Alpha.
Bill brought up a squash that I am
absolutely going to try. It’s called
Zephyr and is a bi-color straight-neck
squash. I just loved the look of it
(Even the squash blossom looks yummy!) He also said Dixie hybrid crookneck squash preformed well for him
too.
‘Sultan’ Beit Alpha
Marianna’s Peace
Within the article, Bill talks about
many veggies. Regarding tomatoes,
he says one of the best for him in
2012 was an heirloom called
‘Marianna’s Peace’ , which is a red
potato-leaved variety. Additionally,
he liked ‘Kosovo’, which is a large
oxheart-type tomato. Also ‘Viva
Italia’, ‘Juliet’, Cherokee Purple’,
‘Paul Robeson’ and a new cherry
Tomaccio
called ‘Tomaccio’. This new cherry
is supposedly being billed as a ‘raisin tomato’ and Bill said it
was “tastebud-assaultingly delicious’.
Some peppers he liked were Giant Marconi
and Tejaswini. For eggplants he said Amethyst was good—a small, dense purple—and
Louisiana Oval Green (the LOG eggplant).
Giant Marconi
Zephyr
So now you have a few new
Ideas to ponder as you get ready
to start your seeds.
Amethyst
LOG eggplant
Seed Swap - Bring some, take some, grow something new!
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Friday February 1st, Cherokee County Extension Office
Now that we have had some time “off” over the winter, its
in the season. Your best bet at this time of year is to depend
time to get into the swing of Spring. It’s time to start your
on container-grown or balled-and-burlapped plants for landseeds, plant your onions, plan your crop rotations, and figure scape use
out what you are going to use for mulch.
It is important to begin spraying fruit trees if you
Also, and very importantly, its time for you to get your soil
tested. If it has been more than 3 years since you last had it haven’t already. As soon as three-quarters of the blooms
have dropped off, begin to put on cover sprays of an apdone, or if you had a problem with any of your crops last
proved insecticide plus an approved fungicide. Regular appliyear, come by the office and get a soil test bag. See what
cations of these pesticides early in the season will guarantee
your soil really needs.
that you will have high quality fruit, free of the fungus brown
Things to focus on in
rot and plum curculio. As long as you follow label recommenComplete the bare-root planting of woody landscape plants dations, you will find that the end product is still very safe to
this month. Container and ball-and-burlapped plants are in
eat.
good supply and can be set out most any time. Winter and
early spring planting provides an opportunity for good establishment before hot weather comes.
April:
January/February:
When buying plants, the biggest is not always the best, especially with bare-rooted plants. The medium to small sized (4
to 6 feet) usually become established faster and will become
effective in the landscape more quickly than the large sizes.
Now is an excellent time to select and plant container-grown
roses to fill in bare spots in your rose garden.
Prune roses during February except in the Panhandle and far
North Texas, where roses are pruned in March or April. Use
good shears that will make clean cuts. Remove dead, dying,
and weak canes. Leave four to eight healthy canes and remove approximately one-half of the top growth along the
height of the plant. If you are growing Earth-Kind roses,
then no pruning is required at all.
March:
Spring-flowering shrubs bloom on last season's growth and
should be pruned soon after they bloom. This allows for vigorous summertime growth and results in plenty of flower
buds the following year (Azalea, Forsythia, Quince, Spirea,
Viburnum, etc).
Dig and divide summer and fall flowering perennials just before they initiate their spring growth.
Beware of close-out sales on bare-root trees and shrubs. The
chance of survival is rather low on bare-root plants this late
I work with a wonderful team on my Earth-Kind projects. Kind, thoughtful, honest people— and it was
wonderful to have our hard work honored. The
Earth-Kind rose team won the Superior Service Team
award for 2012. It was a wonderful blessing to have
my mother, Carolyn Easter, be there with me when
the awards were given. She enjoyed meeting everyone and I enjoyed showing her off. Thanks to all of
you here in Cherokee County that have supported
Master Gardener Spring Symposium—Saturday March 9th, 9AM— Dawn Stover will be
discussing “Sexy Plants” at the First Christian Church, 1920 Beaumont Street, Jacksonville. Cost is $10. Dawn is the senior staff member of SFA Gardens and currently
maintains the living plant collection within the SFA Mast Arboretum.
May you have warm words on a cool evening, a full moon on a dark night, and a smooth road all the way to your door.