October in the Garden - The Very Special

Aaaah, cool fall weather. That’s good. And a sign that it’s time to plant trees. And who doesn’t love trees? Folks often ask what is the best time to plant trees, and the answer is RIGHT NOW! Planting a tree in the cooler fall months allows plenty of time for the roots to grow over the winter and into the spring, so when the hot summer months arrive, the tree has a good foundation to carry it through July and August. Even better, choose a native! Native trees are perfectly adapted to survive the extreme temperatures of our winters and summers and have learned to hunker down and hang on during periods of drought. Diversify to protect against oak wilt by planting Chinquapin Oak, Bur Oak, Lacey Oak or any of the others in the links below. Around here we joke that we are too old to grow trees, but you know, somebody else will live here some day and they will thank us.

Here are a couple of great web links with lots of good information on how to plant trees. So get outside and dig a hole!

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/natives/tamuhort.htm

http://www.plantanswers.com/calvin/fall_trees.htm

http://texastreeplanting.tamu.edu/TreePlantingTools.html

October in the Garden - Deer Damage

A friend at TP&W once told me that there are two kinds of deer people (there are many more kinds of dear people, but that’s different story). Anyway, he said that half the people love deer and want to see them every day in their back yard, but the other half hate them and want to get rid of them all. I admit I’ve spent time in both camps. The deer I love were those up in the Utah mountains where we had a cabin. This deer population was kept in check by nature’s balance of predators and disease, were not tame, stayed far away from people, and came into your yard to eat your rose bushes at their peril. The deer I hate are the ones around here, who lounge on front lawns as if they are the family dog, who stare unafraid at you while chewing the leaves off your prize whatever plant, and who multiply like rabbits, their last natural predator having been dispatched years ago.

And this time of year, I dislike them most of all. From September through November male deer look for trees to clean their antlers of summer velvet. The bucks also thrash and batter trees for noise effect, coating the twigs and bark with scent glands to mark territory. It’s called the fall mating “rut.” If you’ve ever walked out to pick up your morning paper and noticed one of your immature trees with bark scraped off, branches torn and hanging limply, you know the words coming to mind. The damage can be significant, and fully girdled trees will die.

Take steps now to protect young trees by wrapping trunks with plastic trunk wraps, strips of rubber tubing or protect with hardware mesh stretched around steel posts in a circle. Pre-formulated spray-on repellents are a common deer control technique, but a deer in rut may well disregard the disagreeable taste and odor altogether.

October in the Garden - The Good

Take good care of your garden tools and they will last a long time. Here are some tips:

§ Always remove all of the soil from your digging tools after each use.

§ Never put your tools away wet. Allow them to dry completely to prevent rust and handle rot.

§ Once each garden season, rub linseed oil into wooden handles to help preserve them.

§ After each use, wipe the metal parts of pruners, shears and loppers with an oily rag.

§ Or, wipe tools dry with a clean rag, then spray lightly with a penetrating lubricant such as WD40.

§ Sharpen cutting tools and blades of shovels and spades during the gardening season.

§ Use a hone or whetstone for sharpening and a file to remove nicks and smooth edges of shovels and trowels.

§ Thoroughly clean any tools that have been used for chemical applications as fertilizers and other chemicals rapidly corrode metal parts.

§ A neat trick is to fill a 5 gallon bucket with builders sand and pour a quart of new motor oil over it. Use this as a shovel cleaner/oiler each time you put your tools away. Plunge each tool in and out of the oily sand several times after use.