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The Baxter County Master Gardeners are a fun group of folks who enjoy sharing their love of gardening with any visitor.

At our meetings we have speakers, refreshments, & fun.

Come join us!



Next Meeting Date:
March 14th from 1:00 - 3:00 pm

Meeting Place: 
The First Presbyterian Church
1106 Spring Street
Mountain Home, AR

March Speakers: 
Guest Speaker: Susan and Steve Blumreich
                           Topic: Raising and Releasing Monarch Butterflies
Horticulture Table: Jon Smith
                           Topic: All about Okra
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​Master Gardeners Monthly Radio Program:
Mountain Talk Radio March 20th on 97.1   7:15 a.m. - 8:am.
Master Gardener Hosts this month are Tommy Hagan and Ceil Gasiecki

Directions:
From Mountain Home
Take US Hwy. 62B East through Mountain Home until you come to Cardinal Street. Cardinal Street is the intersection just past Harp's Grocery.  Turn right onto Cardinal Street and travel South until you come to the first stop sign which should be Spring Street. Turn left onto Spring Street and go down the hill past the bridge and the First Presbyterian Church will be on your right hand side. 

From Gassville:
Take Hwy. 62/412 towards Mountain Home. Once you get to Mountain Home continue on into Mountain Home on US 62B. This will take you through town till you get to Harp's Grocery and you come to Cardinal Street. Cardinal Street is the intersection just past Harp's Grocery.  Turn right onto Cardinal Street and travel South until you come to the first stop sign which should be Spring Street. Turn left onto Spring Street and go down the hill past the bridge and the First Presbyterian Church will be on your right hand side.

Our annual spring seminar, ‘Developing an Ozark Green Thumb’, is fast approaching.  As you may know, we are celebrating 25 years of Master Gardeners in Baxter County this year.  In that vein, we are excited to be hosting published garden author, Dr. Doug Tallamy, as our keynote speaker.  Dr. Tallamy will be making two presentations during the seminar.  His morning address will focus on the topic of his first publication, Bringing Nature Home; and his afternoon talk will explore, Are Introduced Plants Bad.  Copies of his book can be ordered when you register.

But Dr. Tallamy is not the only exciting speaker on tap.  Lissa Morrison, recently of the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, will be speaking on “Changing Habits for the Future”; Master Gardener Lucinda Reynolds on “Plant Selection: Based on Function and Beauty”; and Ken Forman of the Fred Berry Conservation Center on “The Natural State, Naturally.”

As always, our opportunity table will have many great garden-related items available in the bucket raffle.  This year, we are offering a hand-crafted, cedar three-seat swing and its stand in a separate raffle.  Good luck to all!   Educational information from the Master Gardener Project Gardens will be displayed.  There will also be a horticultural table and a “keyhole” garden demonstration. Lunch is included with the $30.00 registration fee.

The seminar is scheduled for Saturday, March 23, 2019 from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm.  Doors open at 7:30 am.  When you eat breakfast on Saturday morning, just remember our usual delicious homemade offerings will be available throughout the day.  Some people come back for the food as much as for the program.  The seminar will be held once again at the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Center at 605 W. 6th Street in Mountain Home.

There are a limited number of tickets still available. Registration and book order information are available at the website http://www.baxtercountymg.com/spring-seminar.html. Or send your name, address, phone number, e-mail and $30 registration fee to: Kathrine Gilmore, 275 Sharon Drive, Mountain Home, AR 72653.  Kathrine can also be reached by phone at 870-580-0278.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 The following is a garden checklist that gardeners need to be considering for March:

• Last call for the upcoming Baxter County Master Gardener Spring Seminar on March 23rd at the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Center in Mtn. Home! There is a fee of $30 per person to attend the seminar and this includes lunch. Attendance is limited and pre-registration is required. To register online, go to: http://www.baxtercountymg.com/spring-seminar.html or mail your name, address, phone number, e-mail (if available) and check payable to BCMG to: Kathrine Gilmore, BCMG Seminar, 275 Sharon Dr., Mtn. Home, AR 72653. The Baxter County Master Gardeners have put together a great lineup of seminar speakers and topics. They include: 
  • Douglas Tallamy – “Bringing Nature Home” and “Are Introduced Plants Bad?””
  • Lucinda Reynolds – “Plant Selection: Reasons Beyond Beauty”
  • Lissa Morrison – “Well Behaved Natives for the Home Landscape”
  • Ken Foreman – “The Natural State – Naturally”
• Now is as late as you want to wait if you want to use glyphosate (i.e., Roundup) to control winter weeds in your bermudagrass yard. If you wait too much longer your bermudagrass will begin to green-up. Check bermuda first for signs of green-up. Look up against sidewalks and buildings where bermuda would start growing the earliest. Do not use glyphosate if your bermuda has started to green-up. Also adding a broadleaf weed killer such as Weed-B-Gon or Trimec will control a broader range of weeds.
• Spray broadleaf weeds in lawns with a broadleaf weed killer such as Weed-B-Gon or Trimec. Spray weeds when we have a forecast of 50°F or higher temperature for at least three days.
• Pre-emerge herbicides can be applied from early to mid-March on lawns to control early weeds and crabgrass. Don’t apply pre-emerge on newly seeded lawns, however.
• Wait to fertilize fescue lawns until they have started growing good. You could even wait until April to fertilize them. If you have some bare spots or a thin lawn, now is the time to seed tall fescue.
• March is a good time to plant trees and shrubs. Be sure to remove ties and strings around balled-in-burlap plants. Cut the burlap in several places. Don’t leave any burlap above the ground as it can wick moisture away from the plant.
• Bareroot plants, those in plastic sleeves, must be planted while dormant.
• Check ornamental cherries, plums, and peaches for egg masses of the spring webworm. These egg masses are wrapped around small twigs and are shiny black in color. Prune and destroy these otherwise they will hatch out later with a vicious appetite.
• Avoid moving houseplants outside until late April.
• Fertilize pansies. This is a prime blooming and growing month for them.
• A general rule of thumb is divide fall bloomers in the spring and spring bloomers in the fall. Dig and divide hostas, chrysanthemums and sedums.
• Give ornamental grasses such as liriope a haircut to remove old leaves. This should be done before new growth begins. You can also divide them now if needed.
• Overwintering tropicals should be sheared back.
• Prune hybrid tea roses if not done already. Roses should be pruned in late February or early March.  Remember to cut 1/4 inch above an outward facing bud at a 45 degree angle.  Seal cut wounds with sealer to prevent dieback from diseases and insects.
• Prune fruit trees, grape vines, and blueberry plants. These should all be pruned while dormant. Peaches can be pruned even while blooming, just be careful not to knock off the blooms.
• Prune crepe myrtles, buddleias, and summer blooming spireas.
• Prune spring blooming plants after bloom.  As soon as quince, forsythia, and other cane producing spring flowering shrubs have finished blooming, prune out a third of the old canes.  This rejuvenation cut will encourage vigorous new growth which will bloom next spring.
• Start seeds indoors for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.
• Plant cool season vegetables – potatoes, turnips, lettuce, spinach, kale. Set out transplants of cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Start planting sweet corn later in the month.
• Set out onion plants or onion sets.
• Avoid planting tender vegetables and bedding plants until mid to late April when frost danger is past.
• Allow bulbs six weeks of growth after bloom.
• If you want a specific color azalea, buy it in bloom to assure a color match.

 
For more information on any of the above points, contact the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension office at 425-2335.  

The Baxter County Conservation District is holding their Tree Beautification Project.
A catalog with pictures, descriptions, and prices of trees being offered is available on their website.
Deadline to order trees is March 15, 2019.

More information about the project, catalog of available trees, and order form;  click on the link below:

http://www.baxtercountycd.com/conservation.html

​Information about the 2019 MG online training.

• MG online training information
• 2019 online training application
  
  

Brad Runsick
County Extension Agent-Staff Chair
Baxter County Extension Service
3 E. 9th St.
Mountain Home, AR 72653
870-425-2335
870-425-2341 (Fax)
mkeaton@uaex.edu

As most now know, long time Baxter County agent, Mark Keaton, retired back in December, and I, Brad Runsick, am now your new agent for the county. I’m glad to be here and get to serve such a vibrant Master Gardener group and Baxter County horticulture clientele. I’ll look forward to meeting everyone over the course of the next several months. I’ll see you at the member meetings, but don’t hesitate to stop by or give me a call any time! So, a little about myself, in case you’re interested.

I come to you from Fulton County, where I’ve spent the last 7+ years serving as the agent there, but I’m not new to Baxter County. In 2011, I transferred to Fulton County from Searcy County, where I spent 3 years as their agent. The transfer to Fulton County happened largely because I was getting married to my wife, Amber; and Mountain Home is where she already lived and had a job, so here is where we decided to settle down. Some of you may remember Amber serving as the Baxter County Family and Consumer Science Agent a few years back.

So, fast forward to present day. My wife and I have two daughters, Kate (4) and Charlotte (nearly 11 months). Presently, my wife teaches high school family and consumer sciences at Norfork High School. We’re members of the Riverside Church of Christ in Gassville, and we live in Salesville. Needless to say, my daily commute got significantly shorter!
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A little about myself: I grew up east of Batesville, around Cord/Newark area, on a farm where my Dad ran about 30-40 head of momma cows and cut about 60 acres of bermudagrass hay on family farm land in the flat country across the Black River in Jackson County. After leaving home, I headed off to college at Arkansas Tech in Russellville to get a bachelor’s degree in agriculture business with an emphasis in horticulture; spent some time managing parts stores in Greenbrier and Little Rock; worked a summer on an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf; and completed a master’s degree from the U of A in Fayetteville in plant science with an emphasis in plant pathology. In my free time, I like to bow hunt, fish, golf, backpack, or run the occasional long-distance race that I’m rarely prepared for. But most of the time, I’m at home just being Daddy and picking a guitar, mandolin, or most recently, a banjo.

Brad Runsick
Baxter County Extension agent/Staff Chair
#3 East 9th Street, Mountain Home
(870) 425-2335
brunsick@uaex.edu
www.uaex.edu/counties/baxter
Facebook: @BaxterCountyAg

​Before we get into the checklist, let me first introduce myself. As most now know, long time Baxter County agent, Mark Keaton, retired back in December, and I, Brad Runsick, am now your new agent for the county. I’m glad to be here and get to serve such a vibrant Master Gardener group and Baxter County horticulture clientele. I’ll look forward to meeting everyone over the course of the next several months. I’ll see you at the member meetings, but don’t hesitate to stop by or give me a call any time! 

• If you’re wondering when to apply fertilizer, it’s still a little early to fertilize trees, shrubs, and grasses. Mid to late March is soon enough to fertilize trees and shrubs. Fescue lawns should be fertilized in April and summer lawns are fertilized at green up (May).
• Base any fertilization on a soil test. Take samples from several different spots within a particular area and mix it together. Bring a pint sample of dry soil in plastic sandwich bag to Cooperative Extension office for processing. Samples are mailed to the University of Arkansas Soils Lab in Marianna, Arkansas. Free test results will be mailed to you within three weeks.
• It’s time to prune fruit trees! If you have just a few trees you can wait to prune them until just before blooming. You could prune all fruit trees now except for peaches. If we get a serious cold snap, exposed wounds on peach trees can result in some major damage, so it’s best to prune them just before bloom.
• Peach leaf curl is a fungus disease with symptoms (puckering and reddening of leaves) appearing in late spring to early summer on peaches and nectarines. To prevent this disease, spray trees with a fungicide before bud swell (could be as early as mid-February some winters). One application of Bordeaux mixture, copper octanoate, copper, ziram, chlorothalonil, or calcium polysulfides applied as soon as possible when temperatures are above 40 degrees F, will prevent this problem this year. Be sure to read and follow label directions.
• Most summer and fall blooming perennials can be divided and replanted any time this month. Give extras to your garden friends.
• You still have time to control weeds in your bermudagrass lawn. An herbicide containing glyphosate (example – Roundup) can be used on dormant bermuda lawns in February when temperatures are above 50 degrees Fahrenheit for winter weed control. Make sure your bermuda lawn is completely dormant or you will damage it.
• September to October is the optimum time to establish tall fescue lawns. If you missed that window, an early spring seeding (late February through March) can be a reasonable second choice. Tall fescue is the only choice we have for a shady lawn grass.
• Locate the garden near a source of water. Carrying buckets of water can be a real turnoff to even the most passionate gardener. Remember, a vegetable garden needs at least six hours of full sun each day.
• Make sure that you have cleaned up the spent foliage and debris from last season in your vegetable and flower gardens. Consider using a dormant or horticultural oil on fruit trees, grape vines and scale infested shrubs. Check label for application instructions on dormant and horticultural oil.
• Azaleas get hit hard every year with lacebugs. These sucking insects can wreak havoc on an otherwise easy care plant. Without care, the leaves can become bronzed by late summer, and a few plants have been killed by these insects. Lacebugs don’t become active until April or May-depending on the spring we have. You can begin to monitor for them, and spray as needed, but a newer product may take away any worries. Imidacloprid applied in February or early March, can give you full season control.
• This winter, remove bagworm bags from shrubs which were infested this past summer. Eggs were deposited within the bags by female worms, shortly before they died. Physically removing and destroying the bags will reduce or eliminate problems this summer.
• Remove the dead stubble off of ornamental grasses before they resume growth.
• Late this month or early March prune summer flowering shrubs and hedges. Spring blooming shrubs such as forsythia and azalea should be pruned immediately after flowering.
• Prune your climbing roses that bloom throughout the season, Knock-Out and Hybrid Tea roses late this month or early March. However, wait until after blooming to prune your climbing roses that only bloom once. Also wait to prune any other roses that only bloom in the spring until after they bloom.
• Mulch strawberry beds now with straw. Keep the straw off the crowns. The straw will keep fruit from touching the soil and rotting.
• Soak roots of bareroot trees overnight and then plant the following day. Do not fertilize the first year after planting.
• There are no real advantages to pruning back the canopy of ornamental trees after planting. Detrimental effects have been found from this practice including the inability for new roots to grow until shoot growth has recovered. Unless diseased or broken branches exist, leave the plants alone.
•  Also, don’t forget about the upcoming Baxter County Master Gardener Spring Seminar on March 23rd at the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Center in Mtn. Home. There is a fee of $30 per person to attend the seminar and this includes lunch. Attendance is limited and pre-registration is required. To register online, go to: http://www.baxtercountymg.com/spring-seminar.html or mail your name, address, phone number, e-mail (if available) and check payable to BCMG to: Kathrine Gilmore, BCMG Seminar, 275 Sharon Dr., Mtn. Home, AR 72653. The Baxter County Master Gardeners have put together a great lineup of seminar speakers and topics. They include: 
  • Douglas Tallamy – “Bringing Nature Home” and “Are Introduced Plants Bad?””
  • Lucinda Reynolds – “Plant Selection: Reasons Beyond Beauty”
  • Lissa Morrison – “Well Behaved Natives for the Home Landscape”
  • Ken Foreman – “The Natural State – Naturally”

 

SAVE THE DATE:  APRIL 13, 2019
Izard County Master Gardeners Spring Seminar

We are inviting you to mark your calendar for the 2019 seminar.  We think there will be a wealth of information you will find helpful and we will also have vendors and a raffle for shopping.  Topics include native plants, herbs, and bees.  Registration information will be on our facebook page and open March 1.  If you need further information, please call me at (870)322-8438 and leave a message.  We are excited and hope to see you in April.

Debbie Moody
Izard County Master Gardeners     

Registration link