Organic Gardening Calendar
8 Weeks to frost free date in zone 6
By: Kathi
Once again this week we need to get our seeds started. At 7-8 weeks from frost free date, its time to plant all your annuals, tomatoes and peppers. By the time your frost free date rolls around you will have slips to set out.
Things you will need:
Seeds
Seed starter mix or pellets
Dormant Oil/Horticultural Oil
Sprayer
The technique for planting seeds does not change, just what you are planting. Read the directions on the seed packet carefully. Some seeds require being exposed to light, others do not. If you do not plant the seeds at the proper depth, they most likely will not sprout.
If you are like me, you already have several trays full of plants, some ready to go into the row covers, others are still to young and tender. If you have seed trays with these plastic domes, watch them carefully. The domes allow the humidity to stay nice and high while the seeds are sprouting. During this period, that is a good thing, but once sprouted, that dome can be the death of your seedlings. Too much humidity will cause them to “damp off’. Damping off is where seed or soil bourn fungi are given the proper conditions to grow. I have tried every commercial packaged soil on the market, I think, and order seeds from many large sellers. This damping off fungi is in all of them. So you must start removing the dome off the seedlings to allow the very top surface of soil to dry out. Always water from the bottom. Even if you completely remove the dome, but keep the soil too wet your seeds will damp off. Do not try to rescue them. They are toast.
Right now, here in zone 6 the days are warming up to where they are above 40 degrees. You can see the tips of the trees turning red and the buds are beginning to swell on the fruit trees. Now is the time to spray your fruit trees, dogwoods, crab apples, and most any other tree or bush that can develop insect related damage. Do NOT spray Japanese Maples, Red maples, Cedars, Hickory or Walnut trees. You will likely kill them. Other than these, most everything, especially the fruit trees need to be sprayed to suffocate any insects that are wintering over in the bark. Spray the entire tree or bush including any buds that are forming. After spraying the bark will take on a slightly glossy appearance similar to having been waxed. Dormant oils, also called Horticultural Oils, or Superior Oils are inexpensive, easily applied.
Since horticultural oils kill insects mechanically, by suffocation, they cannot develop a resistance to it, making future generations of insects evolve into oil resistant critters.
Next week you will need:
Pre-emergents
Welcome to our Organic Gardening Calendar. It is a week by week "to do" list for maintaining a healthy garden in the tiny micro climate of northern Middle Tennessee. We are in a USDA agricultural zone 6b.
The weeks listed to frost dates assumes April 15 for last spring frost and October 15 for first autumn frost.
The weeks listed to frost dates assumes April 15 for last spring frost and October 15 for first autumn frost.
February Week 4
Labels: dormant oils
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4 comments:
Gotta question....
And yes, I'm a little behind on the gardening as my question will reveal.
Is it absolutely necessary to cut the monkey grass every year? I inherited quite a bit when I bought my house and have added some more in the back yard. But, I've only cut it once in five years and didn't notice a difference. I realize they are not native plants, but do well in our hot summer climate (even though my neighbor's southern exposed monkey grass did seem to die off last year until it rained).
I'm time challenged, so skipping the mowing of the leaves is a preference for me - am I harming the plants by not mowing them?
Not mowing your Lirope will not harm it unless you have mold/mildew issues going on in your yard. The old leaves turn brown and die back leaving all that plant matter there to decay. If you loive in a dry area, you probably will not have problems. If you live in a wet area, then you could develop problems. I have skipped years, but the Lirope ever looked as good as the years it was cut. There are always some brown straggly leaves that show up.
I just foolishly paid a landscaper to cut mine. They were out here with a chain saw…I kid you not. Then they tried the weed eater. They spent two days doing what I could have done in 20 minutes with the lawn mower. But even so, it looks much better and neater than it did before.
My 68 year old neighbor asked me for help a few years ago - she wanted me to help her cut down the monkey grass that is all around her rather large driveway.
She handed me scissors to do the job. Not kidding.
I asked her how long it used to take her with the scissors and she said a few hours, typically. 15 minutes later, I swept up the mowed monkey grass while she said, "I wish I had thought of that. It would have saved me a lot of time over the years." :)
Amazing isn't it?
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