Oak Wilt Article

Oak Wilt Prevention

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What To Do With All Those Oak Leaves

Don’t trim your live oak trees between mid-February and June when the beetles that carry oak wilt disease are most active.  Wait until the hot summer months to trim your oak trees.  The beetle that carries the oak wilt infection is not as active during the hottest and coldest months of the year.  Always remember to paint the oak tree cuts within 30 minutes with either a latex or pruning paint.  

What do you do with all those oak leaves that fall in March?  Don’t send them to the trash!  Consider these leaves as free mulch and as a source for your compost bin.  If you don’t have too many leaves on your lawn, just mow them next time you cut your  grass.  The leaves will quickly decompose to organic material to feed your lawn. You can also run your  mower over the leaves and use the chopped leaves you pick up in your bag attachment as mulch.   Another alternative is to vacuum up the leaves with your blower and use as mulch around shrubs and flower beds. .  If you run short on time,  just rake the leaves directly into the beds.  It may take a little longer to decompose, but you will still get all the benefits of mulch.  I’ve even stored chopped leaves in garbage bags for later use in the season.  If the leaves are just slightly moist in the bag, you will eventually have a nicely decomposed compost/mulch.  

Paperwhite Narcissus

Here it is early January and my paper white narcissus have been blooming for over a week.  They are just so sweet and peaceful looking out there in my barren yard.  We are expecting another freeze tonight so I covered the most sensitive plants and brought many of my container plants into the garage.  Every day I try to cut back perennials and shrubs so it's not an overwhelming task.  I did plant more beet and carrot seed this week.  I'm hoping to plant more lettuce greens and sweet peas yet this week.

Winter Veggies are Reaching Peak

Broccoli

 Cauliflower

Baby Carrots, Beets and Beet Greens--How did I ever get this far in life without eating beet greens?  I think they are my favorite green, even better than Swiss Chard.  I slice of the beets, toss with olive oil and roast at 425 for 15 minutes.  Then I add the beet greens, toss and roast another ten minutes.  Perfection!

Work, Work, Work

The hardest work of the year is cutting down plants, shrubs after the first freeze.  To keep from getting discouraged, I chip away about an hour a day slowly working my way through the yard.  The goal is be be complete by mid-February.  Actually you should try to leave the shrubs out as long as you can stand it because they provide cover, concealment and food for the wildlife.  I just can't stand how messy it looks so I'm probably way to neat for a "real" organic gardener.  I do try to leave as many leaves as possible on the beds to as as mulch and compost.  Also, by waiting to cut back the plant you provide a bit more protection against a hard freeze.

Bexar County Master Gardeners Poinsettias

It's Christmas and the BCMG have their poinsettia fundraiser for horticulture scholarships.  The poinsettias are grown by Peterson's nursery, a local grower.  Here is a good trip for watering.  Use 4-5 ice cubes per day.  This gives a slow, steady watering that doesn't drown or over water the plant.  Be careful that you keep the plant away from high temperatures so it doesn't dry out.

More Drip Installation

Just before we left for California, we had another section converted to drip.  Section 5 drip is along the side of the house and includes the north fern garden, the south/west corner and the perennial beds on the southwest side of the house.  We also re-centered the lawn sprinklers in section 4 to be more efficient on the grass.  It cost about $1800.  With the $2200 we did early winter, the total is now around $4000 for the year to have the most efficient lawn drip system.  Hopefully this will last for years and let us vacation for months at a time without worrying about watering.

Freeeeeeeeeeeeeze

For the past two weeks we have had on and off freezing weather but never much below 30 degrees.  This is the coldest temperatures we have had in two years.  The most tender annuals and perennials are gone:  fire bush, sweet potato vine, coleus, beans, tomatoes, peppers, basil.  As you can see from the raised bed the fall and winter veggies are thriving.  This week we had beets, carrots, lettuce greens, spinach, chinese cabbage and the last of the green beans, peppers and tomatoes.  The best way to cook most of these veggies is by roasting in a 425 degree oven in grandma's dutch oven.  I add garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at maximum 30 minutes.  Yum.