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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:
October 10, 2019 from 1:00 - 3:00 pm

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

October Speakers: 
Guest Speaker: Tina Haun, Grassland Specialist at the Baxter County Conservation District
Topic: Conservation District Services
Horticulture Table: Jason Chamberland
Topic: How to Prune Grape Vines

​Master Gardeners Monthly Radio Program:
Mountain Talk Radio October 16th 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. here to edit.

Look closely. Look VERY closely. 

See those "ornaments" hanging on this formerly beautiful Japanese maple?

Those ornaments or bags are 1 1/2" to 2" in length. The bags are the living quarters of a female bagworm and eggs. The bags can very well destroy this beautiful young tree and any of the juniper or evergreen bushes around it.

A bagworm, or Thyridopterex ephemeraeformis, is a white moth that lays eggs on any plant with leaves to chew. However,  it prefers to lay its eggs on the needled evergreens: juniper, arborvitae, cedars, cypress, pine, hemlock or spruce. Each bag contains one female moth who dies in the bag as soon as she lays around 500+ eggs in each bag. The eggs overwinter and hatch in May.

Control  bagworms with a one-time spray of BT (Ibacilllus thuringiensis; Dipel, Thuricide, etc.). Spraying starts in northern Arkansas the end of May/early June, and in southern Arkansas early June. The worm larvae are 1/8"-1/4" in length.

By the time the bags have formed, only hand picking the bags off the tree will work; the spray will not permeate the bags. Obviously hand-picking will not work for a larger tree; spray the larvae.

If the tree is totally browned out--all the green is consumed--the plant is doomed. It will never be a beautiful, robust plant again. The plant would need to be removed.


The Japanese maple featured in these pictures dropped every leaf. It managed to recover and grew new leaves with all the egg-filled bags yet hanging from it. 

For more about other tree issues this time of year, play the September Master Gardener Mondays ZOOM recording and hear Berni Kurz discuss bacterial, fungal, and worm diseases of Arkansas trees in "What's Happening in the Garden?". Logon to Buddy Messages for the link, enjoy the talk and help our trees  in the process!
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Tree August 30, 2019                                                           

Tree September 30, 2019

​Here are a few items to be mindful of regarding gardens and landscape as we head into fall.

• 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, but you still need to have 3-4 hours of sunlight. 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 be 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 in place, provide organic matter, 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 be 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.
• As you harvest your Halloween pumpkins, or when you purchase yours, pick one with a good solid rind, free of blemishes or wounds. Always make sure that at least an inch or two of stem is left attached. If they have no stem, they are more prone to rotting. Paint a face on your pumpkin as early as you want, but avoid carving your pumpkin until a day or two before Halloween. Once they are carved, they deteriorate rapidly.

 
For more information on any of the above points, contact the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension office at 870-425-2335.