~ What to Do in the Garden in May ~

Planting

• May is the time to plant snap and lima beans, Brussels sprouts, slicing and pickling cucumbers, dill, kale, onions and potatoes.  Use a soil thermometer and plant tomatoes, squash, melons, peppers and eggplant when the soil is consistently above 70 degrees .
• Plant dahlias, gladioli, and tuberous begonias in mid-May.
• Plant chrysanthemums for fall color.

Gardening Resources

• The OSU extension service has number of publications on a variety of gardening topics:   https://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening.
• ✦OSU Extension Master Gardeners are available to answer your gardening questions. In Benton County: call (541) 713-5000 or email: bentonmg@oregonstate.edu In Linn County: (541) 967-3871 or email: linn.mg@oregonstate.edu
• ✦The Master Gardener Programs of Linn and Benton County have a fabulous Facebook page.
• ✦Finally, don’t forget to check our blog for lots of helpful information and all of the links mentioned here:  npkpost.blogspot.com

Pests

• Monitor aphids on strawberries and ornamentals. If present, wash them off with water or pick them off with your hands.
• Spittle bugs may appear on the stems of ornamental plants.  They look like foam or spit. They are generally harmless and can be  washed off with water from a hose.

• Control slugs with iron phosphate bait or traps and by removing or mowing vegetation near garden plots.  In fairly recent study done at OSU, raw bread dough was found to attract slugs more than anything else.  Cucumber was #2.  Dough and cucumbers are only good bait, so you need something else to kill them.  

What to do in the Garden in November

Maintenance and Clean Up

·  Save your leaves – they can decompose in place if they aren’t where they will cause dead spots in your lawn.  You can rake them up and use them as mulch or make a pile and allow them to become leaf mold (compost) which makes a lovely dark mulch in the spring.

·  This is a great time of year to add mulch or compost to your flower beds, vegetable garden, or shrub borders.

·  Winter vegetables can be protected with garden fleece or cold frames. 

·  Cover favorite tender plants to protect from frosts with bags, overturned pots, or thick mulch. 

·  Don’t apply chemical fertilizers as they will be  leached away by rain and can pollute downstream areas.

Planting and Propagation

·  Great time to plant trees and shrubs! Consider ones that supply food and shelter for birds and other native wildlife. cascara, elderberry, red flowering currant, aronia, service berry, Oregon grape, vine maple

Blue Elderberry, Sambucus caerulea

·  Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

·  Plant garlic.

Fava beans planted as a nitrogen fixing cover crop.  They are just broadcast over the soil and kept damp until their roots get well into the soil.  Usually our fall rain is sufficient for this.

Last chance to plant cover crops for soil building. You can also use a 3 inch or thicker layer of leaves, spread over the garden plot, to eliminate winter weeds, suppress early spring weeds and prevent soil compaction by rain.

Take hardwood cuttings from shrubs.

Propagate begonias from leaf cuttings.

2 small pots with the cut edge of Rex Begonia leaves buried slightly in regular potting mix and kept damp will likely sprout new roots in a couple of months.

 

What to do in the Garden in November

Maintenance and Clean Up

·  Save your leaves – they can decompose in place if they aren’t where they will cause dead spots in your lawn.  You can rake them up and use them as mulch or make a pile and allow them to become leaf mold (compost) which makes a lovely dark mulch in the spring.

·  This is a great time of year to add mulch or compost to your flower beds, vegetable garden, or shrub borders.

·  Winter vegetables can be protected with heavy weight floating row cover (garden fleece in Britain) or cold frames. 

·  Cover favorite tender plants to protect from frosts with bags, overturned pots, or thick mulch. 

·  Don’t apply chemical fertilizers as they will be  leached away by rain and can pollute downstream areas.

Planting and Propagation

·  Great time to plant trees and shrubs! Consider ones that supply food and shelter for birds and other native wildlife. cascara, elderberry, red flowering currant, aronia, service berry, Oregon grape, vine maple

·  Plant spring-flowering bulbs.

·  Plant garlic.

Fava beans in Svetlana's garden

Last chance to plant cover crops for soil building. You can also use a 3 inch or thicker layer of leaves, spread over the garden plot, to eliminate winter weeds, suppress early spring weeds and prevent soil compaction by rain.

Take cuttings from shrubs; propagate begonias from leaf cuttings.

Click here for more information on taking cuttings.

Begonia leaf cutting

What to do in the Garden in July

Maintenance and Clean Up

-Stake tall plants such as delphinium, hollyhocks, lupine, and tomatoes, as necessary.


- Mound soil up around base of potatoes. Gather and eat a few "new" potatoes from each hill, when plants begin to flower.





-Mulch to conserve soil moisture.



-Early morning is the best time to water. Water the soil, rather than leaves to reduce disease. 

Planting

-Midsummer plantings of beets, bush beans, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, kale, and peas provide fall & winter crops.



-Be aware -potting soil dries out very quickly, so any new plantings will need frequent watering through summer.  It’s easier to plant in fall.

Pest monitoring

- Monitor for weevils and notched leaves. Try picking them off at night, sticky trap products on trunks, or beneficial nematodes. Check this link from Colorado State University for more information.  We do not recommend pesticide sprays, but the other information is very helpful.  https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/root-weevils-5-551/

-Check leafy vegetables for caterpillars. Pick them off as they appear. Use Bt-k, if necessary.





-Cover blueberry bushes with netting to deter birds. 

- Watch for spider mites during hot, dry weather. Signs: dusty-looking foliage, loss of color, and presence of tiny mites. Wash off with water. Check this link for control methods. 

https://extension.umd.edu/hgic/topics/spider-mites-flowers-and-groundcovers

-Watch for early and late blight on tomatoes.  Prune for air circulation and pick off affected leaves.

What to do in the Garden in June

Planning

Construct trellises for tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, and vining ornamentals.  See this link for instructions on a bamboo tomato trellis. If necessary, skip ahead to 21:26 into the video.

Bamboo canes or sticks tied with string make great custom trellises.

Livestock panels, cut and bent to size, make very strong trellises.

 For a brief video on how to make this strong trellis, click here.

Measure your water use by placing empty cans (or jars or mugs) where your irrigation water lands and prevent wasted water.  Only irrigate plants that need the water and consider replacing water wasting plants. Click here to learn more about catch can testing.

Planting/Propagation

Be aware - potting media dries out much faster than soil and necessitates more frequent watering, and perhaps temporary shade, until roots have time to spread into native soil.  Something as simple as setting a lawn chair to the southwest of a new plant for a week or so can make a big difference in how well it adapts to its new home.

Insects

Learn to identify beneficial insects and plant some insectary plants (e.g. Alyssum, Phacelia, coriander, candytuft, sunflower, yarrow, dill) to attract them to your garden.  An important goal is to have insectary plants blooming for as much of the year as possible.  For more information, see this link.

photo from NPIC

 More on Beneficial Insects

Another article with lists of flowering plants by bloom time.

Attracting Beneficials with Native Plants

Monitor azaleas, primroses and other broadleaf ornamentals for root weevils. If you have notching at leaf edges and would like to minimize damage, try sticky trap products on plant trunks to trap adult weevils. Protect against damaging the bark by applying the sticky material on a 4-inch wide band of poly sheeting or burlap wrapped around the trunk. If root weevils are a consistent problem, consider removing plants and choosing resistant varieties.  See this link

From Benton County Master Gardeners -

Membership meetings:  3rd Monday Oct. to May 7:00pm Benton County Extension office.

Plant sale:  May 2 at the Benton County Fairgrounds

What to do in the Garden in May

Managing weeds, the easy way   

-Frequent attention to weeds cuts down on the overall time required to control them. 

-Use light cultivation while they are small and actively growing.

-Strong larger plants tend to outcompete weeds, so plant more shrubs and trees.

-3-5” of organic mulch prevents many weeds.

-Wood chips, leaf mulch, grass clippings (with no pesticides), and bark all prevent weeds, but rarely kill established weeds.

-Put down cardboard or several layers of overlapping newspaper where there is a large area of established weeds or grass.  Cover with attractive mulch. 

This patch of grass will be planted in drought tolerant, low maintenance shrubs in the fall when the grass has died.

Did you know?

Strawberries were named thus because they are often mulched with straw.

Maintenance and Clean Up

-Allow foliage of spring-flowering bulbs to brown and die down before removing.





-Apply compost to vegetable and flower beds.  

- Flush drip irrigation systems


 

-When selecting new plants, look for drought and disease resistance.

-If an unfamiliar plant problem occurs, contact the Master Gardener hotlinefor help.

bentonmg@oregonstate.edu541-766-6750

What to do in the Garden in April

Primrose Primula vulgaris

 Planning                                         

 - Prepare raised beds for vegetables if drainage is a problem.  Soil can just be dug from paths into the beds to raise them, but a structure helps to keep it tidy.  Often, raised beds aren’t necessary.    
-Vegetables that can be planted outside now include broccoli, Brussel’s sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, chives, endive, leeks, lettuce, peas, radishes, rhubarb, rutabaga, spinach, and turnips.  Click here for planting dates.

- Now is a great time to start pepper, eggplant, and tomato seeds indoors for planting out later.





Maintenance and Clean Up

-Allow foliage of spring-flowering bulbs to brown and die down before removing.



-Apply compost to berries and perennial vegetables.  Mulch to prevent weeds and moisture loss.

 

-Continue dividing herbaceous perennials until soil dries out if you want to spread or share them.  

Fertilizing sustainably
-Avoid chemical fertilizers.

-Make your own compost from yard debris and kitchen waste.

-Mulch with leaves, clippings, wood chips, or straw.

-Don’t fertilize when heavy rain is likely. Fertilizer can wash into streams or ground water where it becomes pollution.

-Many gardens are over fertilized.  A soil test shows which nutrients and amendments would be most helpful.  https://cropandsoil.oregonstate.edu/cal/testing-your-soil

Red Flowering Currant Ribes Sanguineum

Slugs                 

Use traps or safer iron phosphate baits for slug control near susceptible plants.  https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/less-toxic-iron-phosphate-slug-bait-proves-effective

From Benton County Master Gardeners -

Membership meetings:  3rd Monday of October to May 7:00pm Benton County Extension office.

Plant sale:  May 4 9:00-3:00 at the Benton County Fairgrounds

What to do in the Garden in February

Planning and Maintenance

•  Make a cold frame or hotbed to start early vegetables or flowers.



•  Prune and train grapes; take cuttings.



•  Prune fruit trees and blueberries.

•  Prune and train trailing blackberries and black raspberries.



•  Prune fall-bearing raspberries (in late-February or early-March).





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Planting and Propagation

•  Plant asparagus if the ground is warm enough.



•  Plant seed flats of brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts), indoors or in a greenhouse.



•  Where soil is dry enough and workable, plant garden peas and sweet peas.

Early in the month you can still collect scion wood from fruit trees.  Grafting is done in March.

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Pests

•  Box-elder bugs are emerging from hibernation. They are not harmful and can be removed with a broom and dustpan or vacuum.

What to do in the Garden in January

Planning-

·      Begin planning your vegetable garden!  Check local nurseries and online seed catalogs for ideas.

·      Plan to replace plants that are susceptible to disease with resistant cultivars.  See this link for ideas.

·      Get landscape inspiration by exploring one of our natural areas and marveling at God’s beautiful green earth.

Maintenance/Clean up-

·      Add mulch where it’s gotten thin.

·      Sharpen and disinfect (with rubbing alcohol) pruners and other tools.

·      Water plants under eaves or other sites that don’t receive rain.

·      Check on dahlia tubers and other stored plant material.

Planting/Propagation-

·      Bring a bouquet of forsythia, quince, cherry, or plum inside to warm up and bloom early.

·      Take hardwood cuttings of deciduous trees and shrubs.  Offer to trade with neighbors. See this link for propagation techniques.

These fig cuttings rooted in plain water and even tried to fruit!  Remove fruit so plants focus on root formation.

Pest management -

·      Scout cherry trees for signs of bacterial canker.  Remove infected branches and sterilize tools after each cut.  See blog.

·      Moss in lawns is usually not a negative – it never requires mowing or fertilizer.  In higher traffic areas, consider wood chip mulched paths since it does not handle disturbance as well as grass.