Master Gardener Association of Grayson County The Gardening Thymes. Summer 2016

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1 Master Gardener Association of Grayson County The Gardening Thymes Summer 2016 Note from the President Happy Summer! Our 7th Annual Plant Fair and Spring Fling has come and gone. We had a beautiful day, although a bit windy. We hope our vendors and attendees enjoyed it as much as we did. Although we have endured a cool, wet spring, gardens and weeds are thriving beautifully. There is a time for everything, and everything on earth has its special season. See you in the garden, Martha Higgs MGAGC President Remember one year of weeds equals 7 years of seeds. So keep those gardens, containers and beds weed free. Kentucky Master Gardener Training Program 2016 Are you an enthusiastic gardener? Have a green thumb? (Or even a brown thumb?) Enjoy talking about gardening? Want to learn more to become a better gardener? If so, we want you! The Grayson County Extension Office is now taking applications for the 14 week Master Gardener course. Learn about Basic Botany, Entomology, Fruits, Annual and Perennial Flowers, Landscape Design, Lawn Management, Ornamental and Woody Plants, Pesticides and Pesticide Safety, Plant Pathology, Soils, Fertility, Vegetables. This course is a condensed version of an agriculture or horticulture degree. All classes are taught in a relaxed atmosphere and are easy to understand. All of this is only $100! The weekly classes will be held on Mondays at 10:00 am, beginning September 12 th. They will be held in Grayson and Breckinridge Counties, and will include some on-location training. For more information, please contact Whitney Carman, Grayson County Extension Agent at

2 Monthly Garden Tips! July: Direct seed broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower in the garden for a fall harvest. Harvest vegetables frequently to help plants continue producing. When pea vines are finished producing, pull and replace with fall crops, such as turnips, collards and other fast growing greens. Continue to mulch. This helps to inhibit weed growth and helps to retain soil moisture. Keep removing dying blooms from roses to encourage new foliage and flower growth. Spend a few minutes every day walking through your garden, pinch off dead/dying leaves and flower blooms. Watch for signs of disease and insects. Take time to enjoy your hard work! Divide bearded irises, if needed. August: Direct seed greens for the fall garden: spinach, kale, swiss chard, lettuce. Quit watering garlic and onions. When the tops die down and turn yellow, pull and let cure. The second week of August is the time to stop fertilizing roses. Continue removing faded blooms from flowers. Otherwise, annual flowers will start producing seeds and stop blooming. September: Harvest all of the ripe summer and winter squash, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and any frost sensitive vegetables, if frost is predicted. Be prepared to cover any vegetable plants you want to keep going with a heavy weight row cover. Sometimes, it s possible to keep some vegetable plants producing for another month or so. Collect leaves for composting. For best results, alternate layers of green ingredients, dry ingredients and thin layers of soil with a little watering between each layer. This is a good time to dig and dry gladiolus, dahlias, and tuberous begonias, to replant next spring. Some people just add an extra mulch covering and leave them in the ground. Plant hyacinth, tulips, and daffodil bulbs in late September or early October for spring blooms.

3 Vermicomposting By Elena Donovan, Kentucky Master Gardener and Certified Square Foot Gardener Instructor Vermicomposting is just another word for worm composting. Yes, there are people out there who have worm farms and they grow worms so that they can either use them for gardening, fishing, or to sell them. We know that compost is a material from decayed organic matter that we, as gardeners, like to use as fertilizer for our fruits, vegetables, or flowers. However, worm compost appears to have added benefits! There are more than 4,000 different species of worms across the world. Gardening worms usually are the red worms known as Red Wigglers. Worms function as decomposers. Toss them some of your table scraps and they go crazy. Their waste, also called worm castings, is known in the garden world as garden gold. This garden gold is what is sold by some large scale worm farms as fertilizer for your gardens. The prices for a pound of worms (about 1,000 worms) can sell anywhere from $20.00 to $80.00, depending on the worms used. The added benefits of using worm castings in your garden are plentiful. They increase aeration and are water soluble, thus increasing the absorption rate of the nutrients from the castings to the plant roots. Vermicompost, when compared to a healthy soil, contains 11 times the Potassium, 1.5 times the Calcium, and 5 times the nitrogen. So the next time you see worms wiggling around in your soil, just remember how they are benefiting your garden Vermicomposting can also be done at home with a worm bin like the one pictured, found on walmart.com, or a DIY version, with instructions on whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/ easywormbin.htm We are on Facebook! Keep up to date with the latest local gardening news, plus upcoming workshops and seminars by liking us on Facebook. Master Gardener Association of Grayson County Kentucky

4 A Cottage Garden By Robin Mundy, Kentucky Master Gardener A Cottage Garden is a lush, fun and colorful flowerbed, usually near the kitchen door. This makes it easy to run out to cut fresh herbs for cooking and fresh flowers for the table. As with any garden bed, prepare the soil by loosening and amending with compost before planting. Since most of the plants will be perennials or self-seeding annuals, you want to have a good start. First, choose a location with plenty of sun. A fence or wall makes a nice backdrop for the flowers, and a rock border along the front of the bed makes a very attractive border edge. A curved path through a larger flowerbed, or along the front of a smaller bed is pleasing to the eye, and forces you to slow down and enjoy the view. This is when you can start designing your Cottage Garden. Choose plants with lots of differences in size, shape, blooms and foliage. Plant the tallest in the back and the lowest in the front. Avoid straight rows and plant 2 or 3 of the same plant close together for a clumping effect. Install a drip line or soaker hose for easy watering. Use an old wooden step ladder or pretty trellis for a climbing vine. Now let your creativity run wild with garden art. Include a birdbath and birdhouses, statue or animal figurine, old urn, maybe some large rocks, an old wagon or wheelbarrow full of potted herbs, and of course, a small table and chair to sit and enjoy your beautiful garden! Give the flowerbed a finished appearance by adding mulch. The mulch will help retain moisture, keep weeds down, and will also improve the soil as it breaks down. Here is a list of flowers that would be perfect in a Cottage Garden. Pick your favorites first, then add others that will be complementary in color. Asters, Bellflower, Black-eyed Susan, Columbine, Coneflowers, Coral Bells, Coreopsis, Delphinium, Dianthus, Foxglove, Holly Hock, Hosta, Hydrangea, Lavender, Marigold, Peonies, Phlox, Roses, Shasta Daisy, Sweet Peas, Sweet William, Violets, Zinnias. Bulbs can also be included, such as Daffodils, Irises, Lilies, Tulips and Gladiolus. And don t forget the herbs! If you don t mind waiting a year or two for your Cottage Garden to fill in, you could prepare your flowerbed and plant your specimen plants (Roses, Hydrangea, Hostas) this summer. Then buy a couple of packages of a seeds, either a Cottage Garden Mix or Perennial Mix, and plan on winter sowing your seeds in milk jugs in December or January. By early summer, you should have lots of new plants for your new garden.

5 Gardening for Seniors By Robin Mundy, Kentucky Master Gardener It s hard to admit as we get older, that we can t do everything we once did. And you sure don t tell a senior, who has gardened all of their life, how to garden. But there are a lot of senior gardeners who have difficulty standing or walking, and if those aren t necessarily issues, maybe bending over or carrying things is a problem. Here are just a few ideas that may help you, or a senior in your life, continue gardening, whether traditionally or in containers. If a senior doesn t have many health problems and is still capable of gardening traditionally, these tools would be handy and make the job a little easier. Load all of the tools into the little wagon below, along with a hat and cold drink, and then pull it all out to garden in one trip. There is even room for small spray bottles of weed killer and bug killer. Pull the wagon to a shady area to sit on while taking short breaks as needed. After harvesting, pile the flowers and vegetables in the wagon and pull it back to the house. Helpful Garden Aids Ames cu ft Lawn Buddy sells for $50 online at walmart.com, and a little higher at other online sources. Nice and sturdy, plenty of storage under the seat for garden tools and the lid lifts to make this an easy to pull little wagon capable of hauling two pots easily. Children s Garden Tool Sets can be found at numerous stores locally and online. The tools are about $5-$7 each. They are pretty sturdy and are great to work the soil in an established garden from a sitting position on the rolling seat. Add a piece of 1 PVC pipe, and you can even plant seeds exactly where you want, by dropping a seed down the pipe, then carefully use the end of the pipe to cover the seed with soil. Pocket Hose Ultra Garden Hose - 50'. $20 at Dollar General. I found this super lightweight and extremely easy to handle and put away. I have heard/read some complaints about the quality, however, I have not had a single problem and one of mine is going into its third summer. To prolong the Pocket Hose life, after using, turn the water off at the faucet to drain the hose Tubtrug Colander This is great idea for rinsing fresh-from-the-garden vegetables outside. Put the vegetables in the black basket, set inside red container, fill with water, then lift up and down several times. When rinsed well, set the black basket out to drain. This set is $15, but a DIY version is possible. Source: Containers and Raised Beds for Seniors If growing vegetables for only one or two people, enough vegetables can be grown in containers. There are a few vegetables that just grow too large for containers, so if you really want to grow those, a small area in the yard could be planted with corn, full size melons, etc. Another nice thing about gardening in containers is that since so few plants are needed, it makes more sense to just buy a few transplants of the main crops, instead of trying to start everything from seed. You can still sow seeds for root crops, and for those with less-nimble fingers, seed tapes are wonderful!

6 Create your own Fairy/Zen Garden The Grayson County Public Library is offering a Fairy/Zen Garden workshop with assistance from the Master Gardeners on July 9th at 2 p.m. at the Extension office. The program is free, but space is limited. Contact the library to pre-register, nd Annual Extension Family Farm Fest Saturday, October 15 th, 10 am -2 pm at the Extension Facility for Research and Education Off Highway 62. Demonstrations, Educational Sessions, Community Information, Children s Activities, Food and More! *Admission and Educational Sessions are FREE* More information will be available at a later date. Horticulture Scholarship! Master Gardener Association of Grayson County will again be offering a scholarship to a Grayson County higher education student studying horticulture or a horticulture-related field for the 2017/18 school year. We will start accepting applications after the first of the new year. If you know of a student who would be interested, please pass along the information. Deadline for submission: April 14, 2017 by 3:00 p.m. Contact the Grayson County Extension Office at or our Facebook page for more information Save the Date! Saturday, July 9, p.m. Grayson County Public Library Fairy/Zen Garden workshop. Grayson County Master Gardeners are assisting the library with this hands-on event at the Extension Office. Pre-registration is required. Call the Library at for more information. Friday evening, July 15, 2016 Freedom/Fiddler Festival, On the Courthouse Square, Leitchfield. Stop by the Master Gardeners booth on the square for the kickoff night of the festival. Monday, September 12, 2016, 10 a.m. Master Gardener Classes begin. Become a Kentucky Master Gardener through this 14 week course in horticulture. For more information see first page of newsletter. Saturday, October 15, 2016, 2 nd Annual Extension Farm Fest, Off Hwy. 62 on Quarry Rd. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. See all the Extension Service has to offer, including the Master Gardeners, with demonstrations and family fun at the annual Farm Fest. Saturday, May 6, Master Gardeners 8 th Annual Plant Fair, Leitchfield Grayson County Extension Agent The Cooperative Extension Service prohibits discrimination in its programs and employment on the basis of race, color, age, sex, religion, disability, or national origin. To file a complaint of discrimination, contact Tim West, UK College of Agriculture, ; Terry Allen or Patty Bender, UK Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity, ; or the USDA, Director Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W Whitten Bldg., 14th & Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC ( ).