Of Leaf & Limb “ Promoting education in horticulture and the environment” President’s Message October, 2014 Volume 12, Issue 10 President’s Message Betty’s Event Schedule, Earth-Kind®- Light Lauren Garcia’s Bio Green Step - Landfills Saga of a Home Visit Barbara Hunter’s Garden September Minutes Datura Hill Country Veggies President’s Message & Minutes continued 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The HCMG monthly meeting is at 1:00 pm, October 1 at Kerr County AgriLife Extension Office. Lauren Garcia will talk about planting trees. See Page 3 for details details.. We made it through another Hill Country summer and even had the blessing of a little rain this year. Now we have started our fall gardens and look forward to a new growing season. We are so blessed to have the advantage of being able to garden year-round here. For a gardener, that is a happy thing. Here are a few highlights of our HCMG activities: Patty Zohlen This fall we are focusing on the concept of EarthKind® landscaping. The Education Committee have planned an EarthKind® Gardening Program for the public on September 29th. In addition to that, our Master Gardener Earth-Kind® Specialists are writing a series of articles on Earth-Kind® Landscaping for the HCMG newsletter, Of Leaf and Limb. Last month, Diane Sellers wrote an excellent article on the basics of Earth-Kind® landscaping. Check out this month’s article for more information on this topic. The rain barrel construction workshop being held on September 27th will result in an inventory of 50 rain barrels. We have rain barrel orders throughout the year, and now we have them in stock to fill the orders as they arrive. We will probably have another construction workshop next spring to resupply our inventory. We are grateful to Anne Brown and the many volunteers who helped with this project. In October, we will participate in several public events as exhibitors. Pam Umstead has done a great job of coordinating the Exhibit Booth opportunities this year. She has really worked to create a system of materials to make the booths efficient and effective in the different venues. The HCMG Exhibit Booth is a wonderful way to educate and inform the public on horticulture and on Master Gardener activities. I hope all of you have the opportunity to participate in our booth events. These are just a few of the many things that our members are supporting with their volunteer efforts. It continues to amaze me how much HCMG accomplishes throughout our communities. Thank you. Educational programs of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service are open to all people without regard to race, color, sex, disability, religion, age, or national origin. The Texas A&M University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts of Texas are cooperating. At the September general meeting, we presented the revised Timekeeping Requirements for Texas Master Gardener certification and recertification for HCMG. Roy Walston, Kerr County Extension Agent, assisted us in revising the rules to make them easier to understand and to eliminate some confusion on the requirements. I hope you will look them over to become familiar with the Timekeeping Requirements. If you do not have a copy you can find it on the website at... Continues on Page 10 Of Leaf & Limb Page 2 Betty West’s October 2014 Calendar of Events (Attendance at events other than Master Gardener meetings is optional; events are listed for those wishing to attend other educational offerings. Be sure to call and confirm event. We try to limit the listed events to those that would earn our members CEU's but not all will be eligible. ) September 27 – HCMGs have scheduled a marathon Rain Barrel Construction Party at 9 am. - 'til ??? at the Kerr County AgriLife parking lot. Help build 50 rain barrels to fund our HCMG Student Scholarship Fund. Beverage/ lunch provided so join us for a fun and worthwhile event! Members only. October 4 - Riverside Nature Center and Hill Country Chapter of Master Naturalists are co -hosting their Fall Native Plant Sale & Festival at Riverside Nature Center from 8 am - 3 pm. than Rocks in the Texas Hill Country at the Blanco High School AG Bldg., 1215 Fourth St, from 9 am - 4 pm. For add'l information 830.868-7167. October 13 - Kerrville NPSOT meets at Riverside Nature CenOctober 6 - Kerrville Garden Club meets at Wells Fargo Bank ter. Refreshments at 4:40 pm, Bldg. (5-Points) at 1 pm. Kerr program at 5 pm. Cathy Downs Wildlife Management History discusses The Monarch Butterfly presented by Donnie Frels. - What's Happening to the BeauVisitors welcome. tiful Monarch and What We Can September 29 - HCMGs are Do About It. Visitors Welcome. presenting a class on EarthOctober 8 Fredericksburg Kind® Gardening from 1-4 pm Garden Club meets at Gillespie October 21 - Hunt Garden at the Kerr County AgriLife Extension Office and it's open County Historical Society Meet- Club meets at the Hunt United ing Hall (enter through the front) Methodist Church’s Activity to the public. Cost is $15 and from 2 - 4 pm. Visitors welcome. Hall. Brunch is served at 9:30 deadline for reservations/ am; program at 10:00 am. Kristi payment is September 25. October 8 - Rose Garden Club Long, proprietor of The Gardens See Page 6 for details. of Medina meets at Medina at the Ridge, will present PumpCommunity Center at 2 pm. kins Aren't Just for Jack-OOctober 1 - HCMG monthly Stephanie Achenbach, florist, Lanterns. Visitors welcome. meeting is at 1:00 pm at Kerr will present Flower Arranging & County AgriLife Extension October 28 - Fredericksburg Office. Lauren Garcia, one of Bow Making. Visitors welcome. NPSOT meets at Memorial our scholarship recipients, will October 11 - MGs of Blanco Presbyterian Church. Social time discuss Myth Busters: The County and Blanco High at 6:30 pm; program at 7 pm. Practice of Planting Trees. School AG/FFA School are Jason Singhurst will discuss co-hosting Gardenscape Texas Prairies. Visitors welFUNdamentals - Grow more come. *Note these addresses for events listed above: Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library (basement), 505 Water St., Kerrville, TX Gillespie County Historical Society Meeting Hall, 312 W. San Antonio St., Fredericksburg, TX Hunt Methodist Church, Hwy 39, Hunt, TX Medina Community Center, 13857 St. Hwy. 16 N, Medina, TX Memorial Presbyterian Church, 607 N. Milam, Fredericksburg, TX Riverside Nature Center, 150 Francisco Lemos Street, Kerrville, TX 830.257.4837, www.riversidenaturecenter.org Wells Fargo Bank Bldg., 301 Junction Hwy (5-Points), Room 230, Kerrville, TX Hill Country Master Gardeners, Kerr County AgriLife Extension Office, 3655 Highway 27, Kerrville, TX 830.257-6568 Of Leaf & Limb Plants Have Feelings Too! By Anne Graves Page 3 food, so “knowing” when and where light is present is important. Phototropins are light (This is the first article on receptors sensitive to blue light. When plants plant interactions with the sense it, the hormone auxin is affected, and environment, beginning with plants bend toward the light. light.) Phytochromes enable the plant to detect far Just like animals, plants must see, hear, touch, red light, present at sunset, “turning off” light smell, and taste to respond to changes in the absorption for the night. At sunrise, the proenvironment around them in order to survive. cess reverses, “waking up” photosynthetic cells. Animals see due to photoreceptors in our eyes -- rods for black/white vision, cones for color Plants and animals share certain photorecepvision. Plants have photoreceptors present in tors. Cryptochromes detect blue and UV their leaves and stems, allowing them to detect light, and are important in setting circadian different wavelengths of light --mostly red and rhythms and control plant growth and flowerblue, but also far red and UV wavelengths that ing. Riboflavin in plants is thought to be a we cannot detect. Plants can also tell the direc- sensory compound because when it is inactition light is coming from, how long darkness vated, plants stop responding to light. Riboflalasts, and how dim or bright light is. vin deficiency in humans leads to a variety of Plants need light for photosynthesis to make eye problems! 3. Our October 1 program is “Myth Busters: The Practice 4. of Planting Trees” by Lauren Garcia, one of our scholarship recipients. Lauren Garcia is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Horticulture at Texas A&M University in College Station. Her interest in horticulture was sparked as a child traveling to a variety of National Parks and experiencing different plant ecosystems. She also earned her Bachelor of Science in Horticulture and Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Texas A&M University. Lauren is currently president of the Horticulture Graduate Council and an active member of the American Public Gardens Association. Lauren hopes to continue her education and pursue a PhD so that she might continue researching landscape materials and bridging the gap between scientists and practitioners. Lauren's educational focus is on urban landscape materials. Her research analyzes the impacts of container size on the establishment rate and economics of transplanting trees. Lauren has studied under certified arborists and looked at the effects of transplanting and establishing trees. Her presentation will review current tree transplanting standards and present a glimpse into some of the future trends and information regarding planting and growing trees. Of Leaf & Limb What to do with an Old Landfill? A town in Massachusetts has taken an innovative approach to making use of a capped landfill. Scituate, Massachusetts turned the landfill into a solar farm, and generates all the electricity needed for their municipal purposes. Their efforts resulted in being awarded the ‘Photovoltaic Project of Distinction” award at the PV America East Conference on June 23, 2014. The 29-acre former landfill is relatively flat and has exposure to full sun, with a southward slope. Page 4 duce an estimated 3.8 million kWh of electricity per year. The PV installation went online last September. Scituate has become the first town in America to generate 100% of its city-owned facilities with renewable energy, using this PV installation plus an existing wind turbine. Albert Bangert, Director of Special Projects for the town, says: “We started down this path to improve cost efficiency for our taxpayers and reduce our carbon footprint as a municipality. By combining wind and solar energy sources to power our schools, emergency services, harbor, street lights, and sewer and water treatment facilities, we capitalize on New England’s variable weather conditions.” One of the development partners, Brightfields Development, LLC, has a solar energy curriculum that has been adopted by the Scituate Public Schools. An online monitoring system measures the project’s real time and cumulative energy output, and is available to teachers, students and the general public. Scituate's 29-acre municipal solar farm Photo Credit: Green Building Advisor In discussing what to do with the site, the town officials considered turning the property into a recreation area, but decided to be innovators. They worked with a private developer, and turned the capped landfill into a solar farm with more than 10,500 photovoltaic (PV) modules that pro- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency singled out Scituate's experience in a case study as an example of how contaminated land, landfills, and old mining sites can become successful renewable-energy projects. Bernadell Larson Editor’s note: This is Bernadell’s last environmental article for us. Please thank her for all the new ideas she has researched and written to educate us. Rain Barrel Workshop on Saturday, Sept. 27 @ 9:00. Join the party....food, music and production line. Of Leaf & Limb Page 5 Saga of a HCMG Home Visit by Anne Brown, Oak Wilt Specialist Recently, a call came into the office and was handled by one of our interns. She gathered the appropriate information from the caller. Obviously, she had listened in class when I stated that you cannot diagnose a tree problem over the phone and told the caller we would get back to her. She then placed a call to me to help with the tree problem. I arranged for Vickie Killeen to accompany me on a Saturday (because this was the only day the lady could be there), and off we went to Lower Turtle Creek to see her tree. It didn’t take long to eliminate several things that could have been wrong with the tree. It was a large, old Spanish Oak in good general health. Between 10-15 limbs had 4-5” of dieback on the tips of the branches. It wasn’t oak wilt. It wasn’t pesticide damage. It wasn’t lightning damage, and it wasn’t anything else I look for. Therefore, I did what I do when I’m stumped...I took some samples and told her I would get back to her with an answer. The round raised areas (lecanium scale) on the branches caught our attention. Tree canopy: Evidence of lecanium scale damage scattered throughout the canopy. Affected branch: Foliage dieback on the branch tips My first option was to consult with Roy Walston...if he was around. He was, but he was stumped, also. He then sent pictures to an A&M entomologist, Dr. Merchant, in Dallas. Concurrently, I sent pictures to the forester that I work with in San Antonio, who responded, "Sometimes we just don’t know." Fortunately, Dr. Merchant did know and responded that the tree had lecanium scale, probably oak lecanium. He went on to list the steps to be taken to treat the tree. He recommended drenching the roots with imidacloprid or dinotefuran and explained that spring is the appropriate time for tree root drenching with these systemic pesticides. A second option was treating the canopy with a winter application of dormant oil spray. I called the lady back. She was thrilled that we would go to such lengths to find the answer and was happy to have the information. Such is the life of home visits! PHOTO CREDIT: Vickie Killeen Chris Seifert asks us to check out “Untapped Plant Microbiome Could Help Feed Billions” in Scientific American magazine. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/untapped-plant-microbiome-could-help-feed-billions/ Of Leaf & Limb Page 6 Turk’s Cap Fall Aster Barbara Hunter’s Garden Perennial Hibiscus Female Monarch on Mistflower Photos by HCMG Fredericksburg photographer, Barbara Hunter Texas sage, Green Cloud Earth-Kind® Gardening Class On September 29, Hill Country Master Gardeners will present a class on Earth-Kind® Gardening at the Kerr County AgriLife Extension Office from 1-4 pm. This class will guide participants in reaping maximum gardening and landscaping pleasure while still preserving and protecting our environment. You'll learn about soil building, Texas Superstar® plants, the best plant for the correct spot, natives to choose, Mexican Bird of Paradise effect of climate change on the garden, controlling insects in an Earth-Kind® way, etc. This class is open to the public and cost is $15. Due to limited space, reservations/payments must be received by September 25. Make check for $15 payable to HCMG and mail to Deborah Russell, 107 Itz Ranch Rd., Fredericksburg, TX 78624. If you need more information, contact Deborah at [email protected] or call 830-889-0776. Of Leaf & Limb Hill Country Master Gardeners Minutes, Monthly Program and Business Meeting September 3rd, 2014 The monthly program and business meeting was held at the AgriLife Extension Office on Wednesday, September 3, 2014. chair. Carol Hagemier and Jan Grimes are committee members. Chris Seifert is willing to participate on the committee, if a volunteer takes over her duties as “Special Projects” committee chair. Rain Barrel Workshop: The workshop is scheduled for 9-27The program was presented by Ross 14 from 9 am to 3 pm. Food and Rommel, Jr. The topic: Olive Trees. drinks will be provided. The materials to assemble the rain barrels Patty Zohlen, HCMG president, have been ordered, the large holes called the meeting to order and led are drilled, and the smaller holes the members in the invocation. will be drilled after Anne Brown returns from vacation. Twenty memBusiness Meeting: bers have already volunteered to There were 43 members present. participate. The goal is to build 50 August 6th, 2014 minutes were ap- rain barrels to be sold at the Spring proved as written. Jackie Connelly Plant Sale. provided copies of the August 2014 Nominating Committee : Treasurer's Report. Liz Althaus will chair the nominating committee. Anne Brown and TomOld Business/Open Issues: mie Airhart will be participating Approved Projects/Garden Signs update. The exact wording for the members. approved project garden signs con- Membership Status: tinues to be under discussion. At this time, there are 82 HCMG The project at the Woman's Shelter members, 14 interns, and 2 inactive in Boerne will soon go to the Execu- members. Members who have not tive Committee for approval. yet logged any 2014 continuing education or service hours will soon Exhibit Booths: receive a courtesy reminder letter The following locations are schedfrom Liz Althaus. uled for HCMG Fall 2014 events. 1) Cibilo Nature Center at Herff Mentor Committee: th Farms, September 20 , 2014. Tommie Airhart passed around a 2) Texas Heritage Music Festival at sign up sheet. Certified members Schreiner University, September are encouraged to volunteer to th 26 , 2014. mentor students in the 2015 class. 3) The Fall Festival at Riverside “Name the Spring Plant Sale” ConNature Center, October 4th, 2014. test: China Long presented the 4) Kerr County Fair, October 24winning name for the HCMG Plant 26th, 2014. Sale: “HCMG Blooms & Barrel Sale.” She received a $25 gift certificate Policy and Procedure Manual: from Plant Haus. Leigh Thomas is the committee Page 7 New Business: Revised Time Keeping Rules: Of special note are the sections pertaining to counting travel time as service hours and only counting service hours completed within the counties serviced by HCMG. Endorsement Policy: Tom Swift, Regional Program Leader, confirmed that all endorsements must go through the Texas A&M Extension Office. Announcements: Kudos to Eleanor Baldwin, Editor; Betty West, Assistant Editor; Carol Brinkman, Webmaster; Columnists Caryl Hartman, Anne Graves, Barbara Elmore, Bernadell Larsen, Barbara Banks, Allen Mace, Diane Sellers and contributing photographers Vickie Killeen and Barbara Hunter for sharing your dedication, talent and knowledge with HCMG and the Hill Country. Our “Of Leaf and Limb” newsletter is excellent. Your efforts are appreciated. Dyana Orrin, student in 2014, has returned home in much improved health. She is eager to resume HCMG classes in 2015. Chris Seifert, MG Composting Specialist, shared information of the use of Rhymin Cereal Rye to eliminate root knot nematodes. The rye was available for purchase at a cost of $1.00 per pound. One gallon plastic pots are needed for the rain barrel workshop. If you are able to donate, please leave the pots by the Greenhouse. - Continues on Page 10 Of Leaf & Limb By Barb Banks Page 8 Datura: The plant with a dark side Her: Have you had any experience with a plant called Datura? By Barbara Elmore Me: No but my neighbor planted it in her front yard and loves it. She can stick a cutting in the soil and it grows. She keeps cutting it back to keep it lower than her porch. Sometimes, a gardener finds great treasures in the darkest hours of the night. If anyone else is inclined to try out Datura, here are more things to consider: For example, the middle of the night would have been a good time to photo1. This plant is also called Devil’s Trumpet, graph Datura wrightii in my neighbor’s garden, the Sacred Datura, Jimsonweed, Angel’s Trummass of showy white, fragrant flowers with heads pet and Thorn Apple. Another gardener said extended to the sky. Because nighttime is when she used to know the plant as Silver Bells. Garthey bloom. deners not bothered by conflicting names that convey starkly different messages should be Fortunately sanity prevailed, and a few blooms fine with all of Datura’s labels. were still peeking out in the filtered light of a recent September morning. That meant photo2. Datura is easy to propagate. Remember my graphing one or neighbor’s experience with a cutting? Sally and two blooms and Andy Wasowski, in their Native Texas Plants, talking to the note that Daneighbor while tura wrightii is her hair was easily propastill wet. But gated from she didn’t seeds, too. The mind. seed pods are Datura pod round and This story beDatura bloom spiky. Handle gan in late Auwith care because they could injure bare skin. gust in the somewhat unlikely environment of the HCMG booth at the Gillespie County Fair. A num- 3. The plant is confused with Brugmansia. This is probably because they have many of the ber of people stopped to look at the pictures in our same common names, the same toxins, and information booth and pick up free brochures. Sevboth are in the Solanaceae family. eral paid a dollar for gardening booklets. Then there was the woman who had seen a Datura plant 4. Keep children and pets away from Datura at a local nursery and asked the three HCMG volbecause it is extremely toxic. Many plants are, unteers if any of them had ever planted it. None of but Datura’s poison, according to the us had, but we encouraged experimentation. Wasowski book, is so concentrated that some people get a rash just from touching its leaves. Who could have guessed that one early morning recently, this plant would be showing off in a yard 5. Here is a plus: Datura wrightii is deeron my walking route? Through research at favorite resistant. Highly so, says the Native Plant Daplant websites, I finally connected the dots to the tabase of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower earlier Datura question. Center. For some, that might be the best reason Here is what our conversation would have been like if I had met the woman more recently: for planting. Of Leaf & Limb Hill Country Veggies October 2014 By Allen Mace The past couple of years I have been getting some of my vegetable seedlings from a few of the local nurseries in the area. I bring them home and transplant them into larger pots. A trick I learned this year while helping in the greenhouse, was to use coffee filters in the bottom of the pots before adding soil. This helps to keep the soil moist longer when watering. Another trick was to moisten the potting soil with a liquid fertilizer before transplanting the seedlings into the bigger pots. These are two new steps that I now incorporate into my process. I guess this shows that an old dog can learn a new trick or two. This year I definitely have an infestation of leafminers. Leafminers are very tiny Leafminers on tomatoes black and yellow flies. They emerge from cocoons in the soil. They lay their eggs in clusters on the underside of leaves. I’ve seen them on tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. From looking on line, they seem to like other vegetables such as cabbage, chard, and peppers, as well as some ornamentals. Leafminers on cucumbers You know you have leafminers by the white tracks you see on the Page 9 leaf. When the eggs hatch, a tiny larvae burrows into the leaf and starts to tunnel its way between the layers of the leaf. That’s the white track you see on the leaf. After tunneling through the leaf for a week or two, they pupate inside the leaf for another week or two and then drop down into the soil to cocoon and start the cycle over again. They can produce two to three generations a year. Generally it’s a cosmetic issue. In a mature plant it’s not really harmful to the plant. It can be detrimental to seedlings. When buying seedlings from a nursery, check for any sign of white tracks on the leaves or cluster of eggs on the underside of the leaves. If I see a leaf on a mature plant that has these tracks, I just pinch the leaf off and put it in the trash. There are some beneficial insects that prey on leafminers so I don’t like to spray them. If you just have to do something, then you might try spraying with liquid seaweed, fish emulsion, vinegar or garlic. I have a few patio tomatoes, cucumbers and squash waiting to go into the fall garden. Last month was very hectic around our house, and I Soaker hose on hay bales am a bit late in putting the garden in. That being said, I have gotten the hay bales going and the other beds are ready to go. After soaking the hay bales every day for a few weeks I can detect a slight odor of decomposition. I have put a soaker hose on top of the hay bales for watering. Time will tell if this works. This is new to me, but then I like to try new things. Maybe I will even learn a new trick or two. Of Leaf & Limb Hill Country Master Gardeners 2014 Executive Committee Patty Zohlen President Pam Umstead Vice President Suzy Keepers Secretary Continued from Page 1 www.hillcountrymastergardeners.org . If you have questions, please contact Jackie Connelly or me. We will be glad to help. At the October monthly meeting, the Nominating Committee will present the officer candidates for 2015. We will also have a special guest speaker, Lauren Garcia, speaking on the topic of “How to Plant Trees.” Lauren is one of our horticultural scholarship recipients and is very knowledgeable on this topic. I hope to see you at the meeting on October 1st. Until then, I wish you happy fall planting. Jackie Connelly Treasurer Pat McCormick Ex-officio Advisor Roy Walston C.E.A. Advisor Committees & Project Coordinators are listed on our website Newsletter & Website Newsletter Editor Eleanor Baldwin Assistant Editor - Betty West Columnists - Anne Graves, Diane Sellers, Allen Mace, Caryl Hartman, Barbara Elmore & Barbara Banks Environmental Reporter Bernadell Larson Photographers - Vickie Killeen & Barbara Hunter Webmaster Carol Brinkman Web Assistant - Betty West Submissions to [email protected] Page 10 Patty Zohlen Minutes continued: Arlene Tilley, class of 2010, has suffered a stroke. Please keep her in your thoughts. If you know of a reputable and reliable fencing contractor, please contact Pam Umstead. Glory Gardens will be accepting bids. On September 29 from 1 PM to 4 PM, there will be an Earth-Kind® class. Cost is $15. Please send checks to Deborah Russell Hill. available at http://hillcountrymastergardeners.org The 2014 Texas Master Gardener Conference is hosted by Permian Basin Master Gardeners in Odessa, Texas. (Sept. 2527). Information and registration at http://2014mgaconference.org/register-online Master Gardeners of Blanco County present: Gardenscape “FUN”damentals. Oct. 11th 9 AM-4 PM. For more information go to txmg.org/blanco. Earn up to three hours of continuing education units online. Choose online topics that are different than topics presented during monthly programs. Fredericksberg Garden Club is hosting a program “How to Grow Hops” on September 10th, 2014 from 2 PM to 4 PM. The event will be held at the Sanctu- Door Prize Winners: Connie Townsend, ary of the Historical Society on the corner Sandra Martin. Carol Brinkman, and of San Antonio and Milam St. Bernadell Larson. Members were offered free Nigela seeds. Hours Earned: 1 hour Continuing Education Earn service hours by harvesting seeds. 1 hour Volunteer Service To document hours check VMS under Adjournment: 3:00 PM “Seed Harvesting and Packaging.” Respectfully Submitted, Continuing Education Opportunities: Earth-Kind® Gardening Class on Septem- Suzy Keepers, Secretary ber 29th, 2014. 1-4PM at the Kerr County Extension Classroom. More information
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