Things to Do in December
There was an article in the Dallas morning News Garden Section dated Friday, October 25th, 2002 by H.S. Stevens. Mr. Stevens writes in his article about ways to improve your soils. The main concern in his article is the tightly packed soils. His solution is one that most of us have been practicing for a long time: Add Organic Matter.
The problem with organic matter is that it has the tendency to break down, resulting in the need for more organic matter. Way back in January of 1999 I wrote about “My Teachers”. One of my teachers was J.D. Brown and every year he would have me put leaves that were raked from his yard and manure that was gathered from a nearby stable into his garden. Every Year!
Many years have passed and so has Mr. Brown, but with his help I learned how important it is to add good things back to the soil. Clay soils compact easily and this compaction depletes oxygen levels in the soils. As Mr. Stephens says: “Without oxygen plants can not take up water and nutrients properly, and they suffer.”
How much rain did we get this year, how warm was last summer and the summer before? Why do I ask these questions when we are talking about soils?
Because warm temperatures help breakdown organic matter, and excess amounts of water leech out nutrients leaving very little “good stuff” in the soil. To make things worse your lawn or your landscaped beds use up organic matter to produce foliage and flowers and for those who grow vegetables the product that you eat. Organic matter gets "used up" and has to be replenished.
Soil organic matter develops when soil microbes and worms break down plant and animal debris and then mix all the broken down mater as they travel through the soil.
But what if they do not have organic matter to break down?
So What Do We Do This December?
For years people like Mr. Brown have known about the importance of returning organic matter to the soil in order to maintain soil fertility and plant health. All soils, vegetable gardens, perennial and annual beds and yes, even turf areas need to be rich with nutrients, so let's start improving the soil:
Leaves and Other Lawn Waste: Instead of throwing away the leaves and other debris left from fall cleaning we place all this organic matter over the vegetable garden or spread it out evenly between rows of bushes or on top of groundcover and let it feed our soils. If you have more then you need you should compost it or ask your neighbors if they could use some extra leaves this winter. After they laugh at you explain the need for composting.
We actually collect the leaves from gutters and concrete areas and place them on the yard and then go over these with a mulching mower. By the time we come back the next week or at a later date it is hard to find the remains of the mulched leaves from our previous visit. Of course we repeat the process. When we have just to much volume and cannot find areas to leave all the debris at the customers house we do take it to another customers house who has us leave it in his driveway. He has very few trees and needs more organic matter and really likes the variety of plant material that we drop off.
Worm Castings. This manure is an excellent source of bacteria, iron, magnesium, sulfur and over 60 trace elements, because the worms egg casings are so small they can not be removed from the castings at time of packaging, so -when the soil and moisture temperatures are just right, these eggs will hatch and create thousands of aerating machines that in turn will eat other non-living substances in turn creating more digested matter for the soil. As they advance they must eat everything in front of them creating tunnels that will help improve drainage during periods of rainfall and retain moisture in periods of drought. As these tunnels collapse organic matter gets mixed in with clay soil.
It is very important to know what a worm mound looks like. As opposed to a Fire Ant mound the worm mound is normally just a scattering of pellet-sized particles in random.
These mounds can be swept away or left alone to break down quickly on their own. Do not pour citrus oil products on to these mounds, as they will kill the worms.
Composted Manure. Unlike Mr. Brown, I do prefer using composted manure over fresh take your chances and wait and see what pops up from stables manure.
GreenSense Manure is composted and dehydrated, seed and odor free manure that has an NPK of 2-1-1. That means that the soils will benefit immediately and will not use up any nitrogen in trying to break down the organic matter. Many times inferior bagged manures will only have a small percentage of manure and larger quantities of sawdust. The nitrogen in the soil will be used to break down the sawdust and in many cases you will see plants turn yellow from nitrogen depletion.
Cotton Bur Compost: My favorite commercial compost is cotton burr compost. There are lots of reasons for that. Cotton is a heavy feeder and depletes the soil of nutrients as it grows. The nutrients wind up in the fleshy seed pod, ‘boll’ or ‘burr’ of the cotton plant. In most of the U.S. the burr remains on the plant and is plowed back into the soil after harvest, but on the Texas High Plains the burr winds up in what’s called ‘gin trash’, a by-product of cotton production. Cotton burr compost is a natural organic fertilizer, does not tie up nitrogen in soil, is unsurpassed at breaking up tight, clay soils, improves moisture retention and fertility in sands, holds as much moisture as peat, but unlike peat, wets and re-wets easily, lasts up to two full growing seasons and is economical. A quality cotton burr compost will also be free from weeds, insects and pathogens. Cotton burr compost under several different labels is available commercially through independent garden centers in many parts of the Central, Southwestern and Southeastern United States. At Rohde’s and at a few Texas military base exchanges, we offer a premium grade cotton burr compost under the ‘GreenSense’ label. Besides being the very best cotton burr compost money can buy, GreenSense Cotton Burr Compost contains sulfur, the longest lasting of the elemental acidifiers and a plant essential micro-nutrient. In my opinion, sulfur is an absolute necessity in our alkaline soils.
I know that I have just mentioned two different types of compost, and I did so for a reason. Compost is becoming recognized for its fungicidal properties through college testing. As a soil amendment it has reduced the need to apply soil fungicides to control fusarium, pythium, and rhizoctonia. These solids break down with water and release or create beneficial microbes and soluble nutrients that can work as mild fungicides and disease controllers. By using a variety of compost you ensure that some of the leeched material produced by watering or rain will activate these fungicidal benefits. At my house I use equal quantities of manure and cotton burr compost when I start a new bed or add organic matter to my soils, I have noticed that unlike my neighbors I have no noticeable disease problems.
Humate: This petrified compost is a natural source of trace minerals, carbon and humic acid that acts as an organic chelator and microbial stimulator. Chelates are large organic compounds that encircle and hold trace elements that are normally not available to plants. Chelators help plants to effectively absorb micronutrients that are generally in plant “unavailable” forms.
Microbes: Microbial Lawn & Garden Treatment is a culture of living microbes in a liquid concentration with an extended shelf life requiring no special refrigeration. Microbial Lawn & Garden Treatment will enhance your fertilizer/plant food by making it more available for the plant’s use. Microbial Lawn & Garden Treatment loosens soil and improves soil percolation. This improves the absorption of moisture and strengthens the plant’s root system. Flowers and plants in most cases will have larger blooms, larger leaves and longer bloom periods with Microbial Lawn & Garden Treatment.
When and how much ? Wait for the soil to dry out a little before tilling. Working wet soils, especially clays, ruins their structure. Do not over do the tilling, that means do not reduce the soil to dusty particles. Add any or all of the above products at a rate not to exceed 3” thick.
You can add organic matter on top of the beds that will be worked on, letting this product shed the excess rains and letting it leech its magical serum into the soil. If this is an existing, already tilled bed, throw the ingredients on from the edge of the bed avoiding walking over these moist soils.
When you think the soil is ready for tilling, squeeze a handful of soil. If it breaks apart it is dry enough to till. If water drips out, duh, it is too wet.
If you are going to put compost on grass now, or during the dormant season, do it in very small quantities not exceeding ¼”. This will breakdown quickly and allow you to work or play on the grass without tracking s%#* into the house. Reapply as often as you want after the compost disappears into the soil.
Winter Plant Protection: Because we have already had some freezing temperatures this year maybe now it is more important then in the past years to really consider protecting your plats through the winter. One of the best ways to provide this protection is to simply cover the plants with some type of cloth material. Known as row covers and made from a special material that lets the plants breathe, the thickness of this product may depend on the area of the United States that you live in. In Dallas, 11 oz weight covers are usually available at your nearby nursery (Rohde’s) and help protect tender plants against frost but do not offer much help against freezes.
Do not use plastic to protect plants. Plants placed under plastic can suffer more than benefit from this cover. Do not use plastic!
Mulch is by far the best way to protect your landscape. Applying a 3” layer of mulch as a blanket to all soil areas would insulate the ground keeping temperatures more moderate at the root zone. Make sure that there is moisture in the mulch so that if we do get a freeze the frozen water above ground level will offer more protection.
Evergreens can be sprayed with Kelp products, Ascopyllum nodosum. Kelp products are processed to retain micronutrients, protecting against cold stress.Can we say GreenSense Kelp Extract?
Lawn: Many people have bragged about the fact that they leave the leaves on the lawn throughout the winter and in the early spring when everybody else’s lawns are brown their lawn is beautiful. Well, the problem with that is many of the same customers come back to complain about fungal problems. Once you get brown patch on the lawn it really does not go away if left untreated. When you leave a blanket of leaves over the lawn, fungi can keep growing under the leaves.
Fungi Control: In the past we have recommended Potassium Bicarbonate or corn meal for control of Brown Patch and other fungal diseases. We have had great results with these products. However, about three years ago, we were recommending a product called Actinovate as a disease fighter.
This product consists of “streptomycin” and has eliminated many disease problems on plants such as photenias, roses and brown patch. It has also been effective in controlling diseases in newly planted materials like Periwinkles. We discontinued using Actinovate because of the difficulty in applying this product, now they have a water-soluble form that applies very easily and economically.
Because brown patch will continue to grow in the winter, do not wait for the spring to start using fungal control methods. GreenSense Microboost is a granulated product that contains corn meal, molasses and wheat bran. Customers report that with the use of this product they noticed a decrease in the brown patch, more worms and greener and healthier plants. Apply at a rate of 20 lbs.per 1000square feet.
If you do not want to rake up the leaves, use your mulching mower to grind up the leaves and leave the remains in place. Apply an organic fertilizer so the nitrogen will help break down carbon matter in the leaves. To speed up the process, apply GreenSense Lawn & Garden Microbial Treatment.
As mentioned above, natural fertilizers can be and should be used in December and any other month that you wish. Because root growth is so vigorous during the colder months fertilizing with all natural products will be rapidly found and taken up by the plant.
Bulbs: The good news is that the soil is cooler this year than in previous early days of December in past years. The freeze we had in late November helped cool the soil down so now is probably a good time to plant bulbs. Make sure to chill your tulip bulbs before planting. Do not rush into something just to get bad results later.Come on into Rohde’s and buy your bulbs now we still have some left. Our supplier chills them for us so they are ready to plant. Always use soft rock phosphate in direct contact with the bulb at time of planting.
Plant the bulbs approximately three times deeper than the greatest diameter of the bulb. For example, a "Muscari" bulb with an average one-inch diameter should be planted three inches deep.
If you want to have some pretty table decorations for your place setting, now, like before the 5th of December, is the time to set out paper whites for your floral decorations.
Planting Trees and Shrubs: Now is a great time to plant. At Rohde’s we are receiving new shipments of trees and have discounted many of last years inventory.
Trees are a good investment, not only can healthy trees improve the homes appearance, but a properly placed tree can save on energy consumption.
By planting trees in the early winter, the root stem should grow out enough to help the tree fend for itself. In the winter most trees have dropped their leaves and will not be uprooted by the heavy winds since the leaves will not be there to work as a canopy.
By the time that the tree has leafed out, anchor roots will be established to stabilize the tree.
By giving the trees more time to root, the feeder roots will be able to collect their own moisture and will need very little help from you in the heat of the summer.
At time of planting use Mycor to increase the survival rate of trees that you plant. The Mycorrhiza fungi form a symbiotic relationship on the plant’s root system, which is extremely beneficial.
In the winter you can transplant with a greater chance of success. If you are going to move a plant from one spot to another, be sure that the desired area is ready to receive the transplant. If planting into a bed, prepare the soil before hand- mixing compost and other organic matter into the soil. Be sure to set the plant at the same level as it was previously growing. If possible, replant the tree or shrub in the same direction that it was before being transplanted. Place a ribbon on the north side before moving the plant and make sure that the ribbon is on the north side after relocation.
Pruning: After the cold spell in November, now is a good time to prune trees. Remember to prune trees only if they are causing damage to structures, if passing trucks are damaging the lower branches or if low hanging branches can hurt people.
Trees that provide too much shade in the landscape can be left alone if you consider using plants and groundcovers that will grow in deep shade.
Try to remove as much as possible with as few cuts as you can. By this I mean that if you are going to prune one branch to remove excess weight, step back and see where you can make one cut and remove several branches at once. Do not remove a branch by making only one cut. You can avoid damage to the tree by making your first cut several feet away from the trees trunk. This will make the branch lighter and avoid ripping the bark off of the tree's trunk.
Watering: It is especially important to check the plants under tall evergreens and under the eaves of the house to see that they have sufficient moisture. In many cases the plants in these locations are just about bone dry, and the lack of moisture and cold winter weather can be fatal to many of these plants. The plants in most other parts of the garden have now received enough moisture from fall rains to survive quite well, so every effort should be made to conserve water.
Composting: Fallen leaves and unused plant parts should be added to the compost pile to help make compost for use in next year’s garden. Keep compost piles from becoming water logged by shaping the pile in to a conical shape or covering the top with a plastic tarp.
Dormant Spraying: November, December, January and early February are the months to apply dormant spray to help control over-wintering insects and diseases on deciduous trees and shrubs. Liquid lime-sulfur and oil spray combinations are usually used for this seasonal spraying. Specialists usually recommend that dormant sprays be applied three times during the winter, with the first application being made in November, the second in December and the third in late January or early February, about the time the new growth buds begin to break-open. There is no need to spray any of these types of plants if there has been no insect or disease problems this past season. Protect peach trees from peach leaf curl. Dormant sulfur or copper fungicides are ideal with the first application made at the end of December. If the weather is cold, the second and third applications can be timed at 4-week intervals. If the weather is warm, 3-week intervals will be more effective.
Nancy Fletcher sent me an article about building an economical greenhouse. Click here for more information.
Train Story
At the end of December I will have completed thirty years in the service industry. Thirty years, I am not even that old! People in the same industry ask me how I like my job and I always respond that there is nothing I would be happier with. Why? On a day-to-day basis very little remains the same. We normally have different jobs that we are working on or a different task at a job to perform. We rarely see a customer at our store on a day-to-day basis. I love my job because I have the pleasure of experiencing something new everyday.
Several years ago we started to do work for a customer in North Dallas, I will tell you his first name is Chuck. One day shortly after we started to maintain his lawn I went to look at some work that was performed and was thrilled to see two sets of tracks winding around his back yard. Chuck was nice enough to set a couple of trains up for me and let me hear their bells and whistles as they chugged along. He explained the different gauges (sizes) of trains and told me that his was a G. He explained the difference between his engines, Diesel or electric and that one were articulating to be able to negotiate tight curves.
If I had known that he had these toys I would have planned my time so that I could stay longer. But then I really did not know if I was invited to stay longer anyway.
In September of 2002, I recived a phone call from a Mrs. Johnson, her daughter was being married in their house over by Park and Preston. To be more exact for you Dallasites who know the area, her house is in the area west of the Tollway and east of Inwood.
You know the area, small homes that range in sizes from 7,000 to 15,000 square feet on lots that can be as large as a football field or big enough to have a train track on it.
Well, anyway I go out to this lady's house to find out that she was born in it back in 1936. When this area was North Dallas. She was born in this house and all of her children were married in the beautiful back yard. And now her last daughter was to have her wedding in this house. She wanted me to spray her lawn to keep the mosquitoes from feasting on the 300 or so guest attending.
My gain. Not only was I able to see the transformation of this stately home into a beautiful outdoor chapel, I was also able to look at the other side of the fence. Mrs. Johnson’s house backed up to a very unique backyard, and I had to restrain myself not to jump over the fence and go explore.
There was a train track that circled around the entire backyard. There was a depot and a water tank for refueling. There was a bridge and a tunnel and the only thing that was missing was meI.
Almost as soon as I got back to the nursery I called Chuck up and told him about my discovery promising that if I went back to do more work for Mrs. Johnson I would take him as my helper.
“How much will I get paid”, he joked?
“Oh, you'll be paying me for this treat", I said knowing he was not going to believe what I had found.
After the wedding, I called Mrs. Johnson and asked if Chuck and I could come and look over her fence. She said she would be happy to let me do that but even happier to call her neighbor for me and have him show us around.
A few days later I received a call from Ed Landrum who introduced himself as Mrs. Johnson’s neighbor form across the way. My heart really started racing! Woooo- woooo, I thought to myself. Mr. Lundren spoke quietly and said that I could come over to his house on October 31st around 2:30 in the afternoon. “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you”! I said more then several times. In a matter of fact, I do not think I said anything else.
On October 31st, I went to Chuck’s house to see his train sets before we were to go to Mr. Lundren’s. Chuck had a layout in the train room with four running engines that with the help of properly placed relays slowed down, stopped, blew their whistles and kept me smiling the whole time. I felt like a kid again. Of all the engines set up in this room the one that impressed me most was a modified version of an engine made by LGB*. Chuck put Thomas the Tank Engine’s face on it. *LGB is the first model railroad for indoor and outdoor diversion.
When we went outside Chuck let me help him put two engines on the track. One was a steam engine, a “Mikado” with Pennsylvania Rail Road livery made by LGB. The electric was a Swiss engine called the “Crocodile” also made by LGB. When I heard it’s whistle I laughed with childhood memories and shouted “Godzilla” with a really bad Japanese accent.
I do not know what Chucked called what he was doing but I was playing with the trains. I knew that if a good train set were not so expensive I would have one. You noticed I said one. Chuck has about ten engines and countless numbers of cars and what seems like miles and miles of tracks. We arrived at Mr. Lundren’s house on time, but drove around looking for the entrance to his property. We parked the car on the side road and walked up to the house where
Mr. Lundren greeted us and asked us if we were ready for a ride.
Yep! A ride. See, I haven’t told you that this train runs on a track that is 14” wide. And makes a loop around the back yard crossing a bridge and passing through a depot and under a water tower, and I was going to be on it.
As we walked with Mr. Lundren he started to talk about his house and how the train came about. His family has been involved with trains for 5 generations going way back to the 1800’s. He built this house in 1953 and started laying tracks the day after he moved in.
Cinderbell, the engine that does run on these tracks had been in the family since 1951 and is powered by a 1920 Chevy engine that he bought new. It has 2000 miles on it!
The transmission is from a Model T Ford with three straight shift forward gears and one reverse. There is a whistle, but it doesn’t work. But the horn does. Two toots were blown as he pulled the train out of the garage. “All aboard”! Well, Mr. Lundren did not call it out so I did.
As we wound around his back yard I looked over at Chuck, the smile on his face showed his great pleasure. Here I was at the age of 48 barely able to contain my excitement, sitting next to a 65 year old young man that was having more fun then I was, being pulled around by the even younger 76 year old engineer, whose long hair flapped in the breeze. Toot! Toot!
Round and around we went and as we came to the east side of the yard I noticed some faces of landscapers and construction crews that had been working in nearby homes peering over the fence line, oh I was so happy with myself at the time. I could not even bring myself to warn the onlookers that they were standing in patches of fall colored potion ivy.
Regretfully the train pulled up to the station and stopped. As we got off, Chuck and I giggled all the way up to the front of the train to greet our engineer. Chuck quoted Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. "Men are never to old to play, rather they get old because they do not play."
Even though I did not want my train ride to end, I was glad that it did. We were in for an even bigger treat. Mr. Lundren invited us into his house or should I say museum. As we walked in we noticed clocks of all sorts, antique furniture, organs, lamps and photographs and paintings. MY, my!
After thirty minutes we made it to a room on the east side of the house. As soon as the door was opened my mouth dropped and my eyes got so big. This room had wall-to-wall shelving, with different sizes of engines and cars dating back to the late 1800’s and underneath some tables were the original boxes for many of these sets. We spent an hour in this room and heard stories about his favorite sets. Which one was his children’s favorite, which train was set up for Christmas, which train was given to him on his birthday and when we thought that we had seen and heard it all, he led us all the way over to the west side of the house.
This room was not just an overflow of the first. This is the room that he really liked to show off. I could not remember the name of the trains that I saw earlier in the day at Chucks house, but Mr. Lundren was not only calling out the name and manufactures of these sets, but also the nicknames and details that made one set different then another.
Another hour passed and I stated that I had to go. I had told Sandra that I would be home by 3:30 and it was now after 5:00. Mr Lundren asked if we could spare another 20 minutes. Chuck happily said yes. He was driving, so I agreed and was I glad that we did.
On Halloween night, at dusk we went through the garage and up the stairs into the attic. The unlit attic! You could see shadows of unrecognizable things. You could hear the rustling as something scurried away and then all of a sudden as your eyes adjusted you make out the laid out tracks that ran the length of the attic
Finally just as we were losing all daylight that was coming through the one window on the south side of the building a light came on. When my chin hit the floor I saw the full layout. The village and the church with the steeple and all its people. (Okay, call me corny but it is the first time I could use the line from a childhood hand game and I fill that it was appropriate). You could see the track passing through villages and mountains and over bridges.
We left at about 6:30 wishing that we had more time but knowing that we had rush hour traffic to deal with on our way up to North, North Dallas and then Plano.
I got in the car, speechless. Of all the people that now live in Dallas, of all the people that have lived in Dallas, how many of them were as lucky as I was to see, even better yet ride, on this train?
Once I got home Sandra turned into a Halloween witch. She could not believe that I could have gone to someone’s home and look at trains set for 5 hours, as she questioned me over and over again I went out to the garage and came back with a broom and told her that children would be arriving soon and she should take her place on the porch.