GARDEN CHECKLIST

• Applications are being taken for the upcoming Master Gardener training to be held on October 18, and 25, November 1, 8, and 15 in Mountain Home. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Cost of the program is $100. For more information call 425-2335.
• If you didn’t seed your tall fescue lawn in September, do so by the middle of the month. Seed at a rate of 8-10 pounds per 1,000 square feet. For existing tall fescue lawns, overseed now to thicken them up at a rate of 4-5 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Tall fescue makes a wonderful lawn for the shade. Be sure to water it well until it is established. Fertilize now as well with a complete fertilizer.
• Planting trees and shrubs in the fall is ideal. Our ground temperature is still warm, so roots will begin to get established quickly. Rarely does our soil ever freeze solid, so the plants will continue to produce roots, even though the tops aren’t growing.
• Leaves should be collected as they fall. You don’t want a heavy covering of leaves entering the winter months. A dense layer can actually smother a lawn. People often leave leaves on the lawn until it turns cold and then rake them. If you have a covering of leaves on your lawn prior to the first frost, the leaves may prevent your lawn from going dormant. When you finally do rake up the leaves, you’ll expose actively growing grass to cold weather. Your lawn could suffer winter injury.
• Even though the weather is cooler this month, don’t forget to water an inch of water per week if natural rainfall doesn’t occur. It is especially important around trees and shrubs that were planted this year. Don’t severely prune shrubs now because this will encourage rapid regrowth, and the new growth won’t have time to harden off before cold weather arrives.
• In the garden plant a cover crop, such as wheat, rye, alfalfa or crimson clover and turn it under in the spring. Don’t let your cover crop go to seed. Cover crops hold the soil and organic matter in place, provide insulation and add nutrients to the soil. They also encourage continued activity of beneficial soil microorganisms.
• Do NOT compost or leave any diseased plants or plant parts in the garden.
• For you garlic lovers, it’s that time of the year to plant garlic for next years harvest. Grow garlic in a location that gets at least six hours of full sun each day, and plant in fertile, well drained soil from mid-October to mid-December. Before planting, separate the bulbs of culinary garlic into individual cloves. Set cloves right side up ½ to 1 inch deep and 3 to 5 inches apart in the row.
• It's time to set out winter pansies, flowering kale, flowering cabbage and fall mums.
• Have your soil tested and follow the test recommendations.
• Plant spring bulbs, including tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, Siberian squill, bulbous irises, Anemone and crocus. Select healthy, disease-free bulbs. Add bone meal or bulb fertilizer into the planting hole, as you prepare the soil.
• People become worried when their pine trees shed pine needles, but it is a natural process. As long as the needles that are dropping are not at the tip of the branches, everything is fine. Rake up the pine needles and use it as a mulch around your shrubs.
• Clean up around your perennial plants. Any leaves that have fallen can harbor insects and diseases for next year. Scatter dry seed heads or store the seeds for later use. Cut back any plants that have lost most of their leaves or that look bad now.
• Divide and transplant any perennials that typically bloom in the spring or summer. Plant new perennials. They too will get well established during the fall, winter and early spring. Fall planting can also give you blooms the first season after planting.
• Recycle disease-free annual potted plants and potting medium by adding them to the compost pile or directly into the garden. Remember to break up root balls from the plants.
• Clean up emptied pots with a 10 percent bleach solution to get rid of any plant pathogens.
• Empty excess water out of hoses before storing. Water expands as it freezes and can burst hoses.

Mark Keaton
County Extension Agent
University of Arkansas - Division of Agriculture
Telephone: 425-2335

Disease is a general term that can include fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens. All three of these pathogens can lay dormant until favorable conditions present themselves. This can be related to temperature, moisture or plant health. Many of the diseases we encounter in the South favor hot and humid conditions. It is important to identify whether you are dealing with fungal, bacterial or viral pathogens. The control for each of these is completely different. This a list of potential disease problems ​you may encounter in your garden.

POWDERY MILDEW
This disease can attack everything from trees and shrubs to vegetables. It appears as a gray-like powder on the tops of leaves. It is one of the only fungal disease problems that favors dry weather. It is most common in late spring and early fall. Powdery mildew can be controlled by spraying approved fungicides at 10 to 14 day intervals.

FUSARIUM WILT
This another fungal pathogen that attacks a broad range of plants, including ornamentals and vegetables. This fungus occurs in the soil and penetrates the roots of the plant, working its way into the vascular system. It begins to clog up the plants "plumbing" causing leaves to turn yellow and stems to wilt. Treatment is very difficult once the plant is infected. Vegetable plants normally will die and need to be removed.

SEPTORIA LEAF SPOT AND SPOT ANTHRACNOSE
These are two very common diseases that can be caused by either bacterial or fungal pathogens. Correct identification will be needed when selecting a control. Many times affected leaves can simply be plucked off and discarded. On larger shrubs and trees, the disease tends to be more of a cosmetic issue and the plant can normally survive.

BACTERIAL WILT
Bacterial wilts are caused by several different strands of bacteria and can affect vegetables, flowers, and other herbaceous plants. This disease can be transmitted through infected soil or through insects feeding on infected plants and transmitting to healthy plants. Bacteria cause a disruption in the vascular system of plants causing them to discolor, wilt, and eventually die. Once bacteria enter into the plant, it is almost impossible to control. Discard infected plants and keep damaging insects under control to help with the spread of disease. Fumigation or solarization of the soil my be an effective way to control the disease for future crops.

FIRE BLIGHT
This disease is actually a bacterium that is very host specific and affects members of the rose family. This includes pears, apples, crabapples, hawthorn, and Pyracantha. The disease is fed by insects feeding on the plants and is most active in late spring during warm, humid weather. Infected branches wilt and turn brown and then black as if scorched by fire. Spraying for this disease can be tricky depending upon the height of the plant or tree. Once infected, prune the damaged branches down several inches into the good wood. Remove the cut branches from the site.

VIRUSES
There are many viruses that can affect anything from ornamentals to fruit trees and vegetables. Viruses normally cause discoloration or mottling of leaves. Leaves and branches are often deformed and twisted and leaves may appear elongated or tiny. Insects, soil or moisture can carry or spread viruses. There are no effective controls so cutting damaged areas out and plant removal are the only remedies.

DAMPING OFF
This disease is caused by several species of fungi and is common in our Southern soils. It is one of the main causes of poor germination of vegetables and annual flowers. Seedlings are very susceptible when they first emerge. This disease is most prevalent in high-nitrogen soils that stay consistently wet. Plant seeds in well-amended and well-drained sites to minimize the chance of infection. Do not add high-nitrogen fertilizers until seedlings have grown several sets of leaves. Fungicide-coated seed can also discourage damping -off.

PHYTOPHTHORA AND PYTHIUM ROOT ROT
Both of these fungi thrive in wet, poorly drained soils. They can attack the roots and stems of plants causing them to rot and eventually die. Gardeners frequently mistake the wilting for drought stress.

Often individual plant branches die first and then the overall plant turns yellow and eventually dies. Prevent this disease by planting only in well drained areas. Water plants only when necessary and allow soil to dry out between irrigations.

This short list of disease problems are only a handful of what is actually out there, but these are definitely some of the most common ones you may encounter. Careful plant selection and good cultural practices will go along way toward keeping your plants healthy and avoiding these potential killers. 

Excert from
"THE BEATEN PATHOGEN" 
By Bob Westerfield
Arkansas Gardener
October 2015                   

This is a tasty and ​easy to make side dish.

1.  In a medium saucepan, combine the vinegar and
    cornstarch; mix until cornstarch is dissolved.
2.  Add the brown sugar and butter. Bring to a boil
     over medium heat, stirring until thickened.
3.  Add the carrots and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or
    until heated through. Serve immediately.

    Serves: 4

To the botanist a bulb is an underground storage organ with a vertical stem axis surrounded by swollen leaf bases. The botanical term geophyte is used to describe all the storage types - bulbs, corms, tubers, rhizomes, etc - that gardeners collectively call "bulbs."

True bulbs are found only among the monocotyledonous species; those plants with one seed leaf at germination. Most of the true bulbs are found in two plant families - the lily family or the amaryllis family - although many botanists are now breaking these old classification categories into many subsets at the family level.

​The three bulb species shown in the illustration above have three distinct means of maintaining the bulbous lifestyle. The tulip, native to the cold and dry steep regions of Central Asia, replaces its bulb each year after flowering. The food reserves of the original bulb are depleted to produce the stout stem, leaves, and flowers we so admire in April. If the climate is perfect - with cool conditions and just the right amount of moisture - the foliage will persist long enough to regenerate a big healthy bulb for the next season. But when, as in most gardens, conditions are not so good, the big bulb that was planted is replaced with a small bulb, and after two years it is too small to flower. A bulb too small to flower produces just a single leaf that splays out across the ground.

This is the easiest way to make pumpkin butter.
Just let your slow cooker do all the work.

INGREDIENTS

• 15 ounce can solid can pumpkin
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves

DIRECTIONS:
    Set crockpot on low setting.
    Thoroughly combine the ingredients in the crock pot. Cover  and cook for
    about five hours, stirring occasionally, until pumpkin butter is thick enough
    to stick to a spoon turned upside down.

    Spoon pumpkin butter into a jar and cool completely in the refrigerator 
    before using.

    Pumpkin butter will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week or in the
​    freezer for up to six months.
    

When I was walking my dog at Cooper Park recently, I saw this plant in front of the Shot Gun Cabin that I had never seen before. Of course I had to take a closer look. I thought it was lovely so I looked it up when I got home. It is native to Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.

​Snow in September? On a prairie? In Texas? Sure....
Our native wildflower, commonly called snow-on-the-prairie Euphorbia bicolor, attracts attention to the hot, dry prairie with its cool, green and white bracts. These three to four-inch bracts are longer than the leaves of the plant, and completely dominate the tiny white flower structures.

Actually, the white structure is not a flower, but a cyathium (the specialized inflorescence of Euphorbia, consisting of a flower-like, cup-shaped involucre which carries the several true flowers within) as defined by M. Enquist in his book WILDFLOWERS OF THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY.

Each 5-petaled structure, only 1/4 inch diameter, looks like it's been tucked into the base of the bracts as an afterthought, almost hidden by the long, wispy bracts.
Snow-on-the prairie is a single, stout, hairy, 3 to 5-foot stem which splits, midway up the stem, into a perfect triangular set of (three) branches. With ample moisture, these three branches may grow 6 to 10 inches taller and split into additional sets of three branches.

One to two-inch, hairy, lanceolate, alternate leaves line the stem up to the first branch split, and at that point, three opposite leaves encircle the base of the split. This interesting leaf arrangement is repeated with each new symmetrical branching.

A milky latex weeps from any broken stem, leaf or bract. All Euphorbias contain this milky sap, which can cause dermatitis to sensitive-skinned persons, and, is toxic. Since livestock does not eat this plant, snow-on-the-prairie is normally found in very large colonies throughout the Grand Prairie, Blackland Prairie, east to east Texas, and from Montague County southwest to Johnson County. A single plant is intriguing, but a colony is breathtaking.

As flowers mature, green, hairy, 3-seeded capsules develop and stay on the plant until they dry, harden, pop open and disperse seeds. This ballistic dispersal of seeds explains the scattered arrangement of plants on the prairie. If you plan to collect seeds from this annual, you must monitor the maturity and collect after the pod dries, but before it pops open.

Texas Woman's University, under the direction of our Trinity Forks member, Camelia Maier, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Biology Department, is currently researching E. bicolor to identify the chemical composition of estrogens within the plant for future medicinal purposes.

Our sunny prairies and roadsides are extremely enticing with this grande native wildflower. While E. bicolor is in full bloom, take time to touch the leaves, and, use a magnifying lens to closely inspect the downy-soft, hairy details of this uniquely beautiful wildflower. I think you'll appreciate having snow-on-the-prairie, especially in Texas during the heat of August and September!

​Latin: Cucurbita pep0
The pumpkin is as American as apple pie, yet its current status is a result of our diverse cultural heritage.

​Among the New England tribes these plants were described as "askutasquash." The Puritans of New England adopted "pumpion" for the large, orange-fruited vines and "squash" for all of the smaller-fruited edible sorts.

​Botanically speaking, pumpkins and squashes are kissing cousins belonging to the cucumber family. They are so closely related that pumpkins and some squashes will readily cross pollinate one another. If a non-pumpkin type pollinates a pumpkin flower, the resultant fruit will look like a normal pumpkin, but if seeds are saved and planted the next season, the fruit of the hybrid plant will be mongrelized.

​The acceptance of pumpkins by early colonists was not immediate. In fact, it took a good long New England winter to convince them that they were indeed tasty and nutritious. One of the earliest methods of preparing pumpkins was to cut a hole in the top, scoop out the seeds, and then fill the cavity with apples, molasses, spices and milk. The top was put back on and then the pumpkin was baked in a bed of coals.

​By the late 1700's, the standard method of preparing pumpkin, other than pumpkin bread, had become our standard pumpkin pie, which included eggs, molasses, allspice and ginger baked in a tart shell.

​The Irish potato famine a century later resulted in the immigration of over 600,000 Irish men and women to the United States. Finding few big turnips to carve, the pumpkin was adopted for Jack's lantern for the Christian All Hallows Eve festival. That holiday evolved into our nonsecular Halloween.

​Gardeners wishing to grow pumpkins need to first assess their goal. If the goal is to grow pumpkins for pies, one of the small fruited pie types such as Small Sugar or Jack-Be-Little are best. But if the goal is to grow a good carving pumpkin, say something in the 20 to 30 pound range, selections such as the old Connecticut Field or Jack o' Lantern are hard to beat.