Happy Halloween!!

Jefferson County CSU Extension Master Gardener bloggers wish you all a very Happy Halloween!

Gardening Power to the People: Insect Puddles Video

Here is the third in our series about attracting pollinators into the garden, produced by our JeffCo Gardener Video Team.

Gardening Power to the People: Insect Hotels Video Part 2

Here is the second in the series about bringing pollinators into your garden presented by the JeffCo Gardener Video Team.

Gardening Power to the People: Insect Hotels Video Part 1

Here is the first in a series of three new videos from our JeffCo Gardener Video Team about making your garden pollinator friendly.

Plant Amaryllis Now for Holiday Blooms by Donna Duffy

Amaryllis is one of the easiest bulbs to grow and will generally bloom 6-10 weeks after planting. Bloom time varies a bit among varieties, so be sure to check the label on the bulb you are considering. If you want a blooming Amaryllis for the holidays, now is the time to plant!

Recording Your Yearly Garden Notes By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo Joyce D'Agostino

You don’t have to be a skilled writer to benefit from the practice of keeping good garden notes. I found that recording important information about your garden each year helps a great deal to learn which varieties are ones you enjoy to grow and work best in your garden. 

Start in the spring and begin recording basic information such as the weather, which seeds you are starting, which seeds emerged first and then eventually which plants were the hardiest and produced the best. Make it a point to regularly go to your journal and add notes as the season goes on. You can also print out articles or blogs that contain information that you want to try next year too.

If this is your first year to record notes and you didn’t start in the spring, there is still time to record your notes. Begin now and add as you think of other information to add so you have recorded as much important information as possible.

If you enjoy computer programs, there are also programs designed just for your garden note information. If you keep your notes on your computer, be sure to print out a copy from time to time or save it to disc so you have a backed up copy in the event of a computer problem. You don’t want to spend hours recording important data and then have it lost. You can also buy a bound journal or even a spiral notebook and record your information as you go along. 

You will find that doing this is a great practice to help you remember both the successes and the things you want to change for your next seasonal garden. I also keep dated pictures of much of what I grow each year. Not only is it fun to view the pictures, but it also can help you get an idea of when a fruit or vegetable is likely to be ready for harvest.

Fall Cleanup Tips – Chapter III – Perennials – Trees, Woody Shrubs and Tender Plantings by Peter Drake

To both the dedicated perennial landscape gardener, and the more casual observer of trees, shrubs and groundcovers, it has shown itself to be a very hard, strange season for perennial plantings here in Colorado.

First, there was the November, 2014 freeze that struck at our Front Range landscapes before trees and shrubs had a chance to harden off fully for the winter.  Following this, another sudden freeze on Mother’s Day, 2015 interrupted the budding stages of a number of plants; and then, there was a cooler, wetter-than-normal spring period.  This was followed by a period of intense, dry heat through July and most of August.

These climatic factors conduce to intense plant stress.  Whole trees, woody shrubs and tender perennials, or significant sections of them, have shown signs of withering and browning much earlier in the season than usual—or have not leafed out, or otherwise bloomed, at all, presenting bare patches along the borders of house lots, and in the trees lining local streets.

The good news is that all of this can be managed proactively, and gradually repaired.  

Roasting Sunflower Seeds by Donna Duffy

All around town the sunflower heads are nodding, heavy with seeds ready to harvest. If you've managed to rescue your seeds from the birds and squirrels, here's a recipe for roasting seeds in the shell from the National Sunflower Association.

Native Asters for Early Fall Color by Joyce D'Agostino

Now that fall is here, the flowers that can tolerate the cooler weather and shorter days may be few. But if you want to continue to enjoy flowers and color for a few more weeks asters make a great choice. 

Like chrysanthemums, asters bloom in late summer into early fall and have been a seasonal favorite for decades. They are a welcome addition of color when the annual flowers that need the warmth and more sun are winding down. Asters are great cut flowers for bouquets as well. 

Preventing Animal Damage in your Garden By Joyce D’Agostino

Squirrel damage photo Missouri Botanical Gardens

Few things are as disappointing to a gardener as to find a vegetable or fruit you were looking forward to harvesting has been destroyed by an animal. 

Depending on your area, the animals that can invade your garden can be as large as deer or small like voles, chipmunks and small rabbits. All of these animals are used to foraging plants and welcome any readily accessible source of edibles. These edibles often include many of your favorite plants including lettuce, greens, fruit and even tomatoes.

I first noticed few weeks ago that the squirrels seemed to be nipping off the heads of the sunflowers. Then shortly after, I found some tomatoes and peppers that had been pulled from the plants, a bite or two taken out of it and then left to rot.  This was especially disappointing when these animals seemed to be doing this on a regular basis and actually starting to thin out the fruit on the plants.

Bumblebees in Your Late Summer Garden By Joyce D’Agostino

Bombus huntii photo bugGuide.net

There have been many articles written about the plight of the honeybees and the decline in their numbers. This is definitely a concern for all of us who love to see these bees active in our garden and pollinating the plants.

I read a recent article that stated now Bumblebees may be on the decline. Learning more about any pollinator will help us all have a more inviting and supportive environment for them to grow and thrive may help reverse this trend.

Bumblebees are very active pollinators and move fast through any plant where they are foraging.  It was difficult to snap a picture quickly enough to capture them in action because these bees can move fast in their effort to get the nectar and pollen before another competitor comes along. Like honeybees, they are social bees. Bumblebees have annual nests and they do make wax but they don’t produce honey and their value as a pollinator is still very important. 

You can hear a bumblebee active at work because they actually do make a noticeable buzz sound. They feed on nectar and gather pollen like other bees, but they are “buzz pollinators” and use their strong jaws to vibrate plants that other bees and pollinators may not be able to manage.  They are larger and fuzzier than honeybees and stand out with their yellow and black stripes and some have colorful markings. Colorado is home to a number of native bumblebees.

The attached articles give some great tips on which plants that certain pollinators like Bumblebees will be attracted to and ones that are not. By adding just a few more of these plants each year to your landscape, you can make a significant difference in the number of pollinators that visit your garden. 

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05525.html
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/sam/garden-insects.pdf
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/sam/bees-wasps.pdf
http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4dmg/PHC/bumble.htm

https://bspm.agsci.colostate.edu/files/2013/03/Bumble-Bees.pdf

Pruning Tomatoes Does Help Ripening! By Joyce D’Agostino

As noted in the recent article on this blog   Need to Ripen Green Tomatoes? Let's Party! by Carol King” dated 9/10/15,  the methods suggested are excellent ones to help you speed some last minute ripening.  

After a cool spring which slowed down the tomatoes and other warm weather vegetables, and then very hot and dry weather, the tomatoes ib my garden seemed to be taking their time ripening. I had heard about pruning your tomatoes to give the plants a break from trying to keep producing and turn their energy into ripening.

I did some light pruning, mostly to the tops of the tomatoes where there was new growth, blooms and some tiny tomatoes. Knowing that these little tomatoes would probably not reach maturity at this point in the season, I pruned them off along with the blossoms and some of the stems and hoped that this would help focus this energy into the ripening process.

It took about 10 days – 2 weeks, but I was surprised and happy to find that the full sized tomatoes, which seemed to be turning color all too slowly, finally ripening much faster. The daytime weather staying warm helped as well even though the nights are beginning to cool. 

It’s hard to see an end to summer and the tomato season, but when you do get well into August and you have full sized tomatoes that are taking their time to ripen, doing some pruning really does help to speed the process. My attached pictures showing the plants just two weeks apart show that it works and I can recommend this process to anyone who wants some last minute tomatoes from their garden.