Two Years of Musings:
One advantage of being an old guy is perspective
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June Yard and Garden Tasks
June is when the Reno garden really starts to show its intentions. The roses are blooming, the tomatoes are finally beginning to grow, and the weeds seem to have declared war. A few hours spent in the yard now can make the difference between a productive summer and a season spent trying to catch up. June sunshine in northern Nevada can be surprisingly intense. Container plants may need daily watering, and newly planted vegetables often require extra attention during hot, windy afternoon. Here is set of activities to keep things looking good 1. Deadhead Your Perennials and Annual Flowers To encourage continued flowering, perennials and annual flowers should be deadheaded this month. As the blooms fade, make sure to cut off or pinch the dead flowers. 2….
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May Gardening To-Do List
May kicks garden season into high gear — nothing is really off-limits this month. Get out and dig into gardening before the summer heat arrives. Here are a dozen suggestions you can start on if you haven’t already. Plant Warm-Season Veggies By month’s end, warm-season vegetables should be in the ground in all but the northern-most regions. This includes pepper, tomato, eggplant, squash, corn and cucumbers. Okra, black-eyed peas and melons are also on this list. Plant beans, too, growing several varieties so you have beans for fresh eating and drying. Direct sow seeds into the garden, or tuck in transplants. Once soil is warm, seeds quickly catch up with transplants. Look for Healthy Roots Healthy plant roots are white and fill the soil volume…
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False Spring Is Over—Now the Real Work Begins
Spring showed up early this year—or at least it looked like it did. February was warm. Sunny days with temperatures getting into the 80s. Things started to wake up. It felt like we might be in for an early season. A few brave plants even made an appearance, and it was tempting to get ahead of things. Then March and April reminded us where we live—even if we never did get much snow. Cold mornings, late frosts, and just enough uncertainty to make you regret getting a head start with seeds in the ground and a few vegetables in pots. After more than 20 years here, I should know better than to plant anything serious too early. In northern Nevada, that’s not unusual. Spring doesn’t…
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We’re Closer Than We Realized
Revisiting Star Trek and the Future That Quietly Arrived I recently finished reading Treknology by Ethan Siegel. The book is about ten years old now, which makes it interesting for a different reason than originally intended. It’s no longer just about the progress that had been made a decade ago. It’s about what has happened since—and how much of it has quietly worked its way into everyday life. A Familiar Future I’ve been a Star Trek fan since it first came out—not a fanatic, never went to conventions or collected memorabilia, but the concept always resonated. When it first aired, I was working on the Saturn V program. We were building real rockets, pushing toward the moon, and Star Trek showed something beyond that—a longer…
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Gardening Tasks for April
Gardening Tips We have had Spring all through March and now it is looking like we may be the last remnants of Winter for the start of April. So many of the garden tasks normally targeted for April may have already been completed. Successful gardening amounts to paying attention and following through with what needs to be done at any one time. Regardless, here are some of the tasks for your garden which should be considered for April. Beware of insects and other pests in your garden. Keep an eye on your garden for aphids, spider mites, etc., and take action when necessary to eliminate the pests If you don’t have enough garden space, you can always create more by growing crops in pots! For example,…
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March: False Spring Edition
March is the month that lies to gardeners. It gives you one warm afternoon. The sky turns that hopeful shade of blue. The snow on Peavine retreats just enough to make you believe winter has packed up and moved to Idaho. You step outside without a jacket. You smell possibility. And then — three days later — it’s 28 degrees and sleeting sideways. Welcome to False Spring. I’ve seen blooming daffodils wearing two or three inches of snow like it was perfectly normal. They stand there — bright yellow, cheerful, mildly offended — as if this is all part of the plan. They’re tougher than we are. I, on the other hand, own more frost covers than any reasonable person should. They’re neatly folded in…
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February Gardening To-Do List
This is a bit late but there is still plenty of time to undertake these tasks. So, give your green thumb a workout this month to get in shape for the main event when spring arrives. There’s plenty to do to prep your garden, indoors and out. Protect Plants From Critters Between snows, check prized landscape plants. Use pieces of bird netting to cover vulnerable plants that have visible leaves, like roses. Deer and rabbits usually leave these plants alone, except when they’re the only live leaves in the winter garden. Clean up roses and other flowering shrubs while you’re in the garden, cutting back old leaves. This allows blooms to shine. Spray Dormant Oil While woody plants are dormant, apply a horticultural oil spray….
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November Garden To-Do List
Nights may be bringing frost, but days still offer sunny afternoons for outdoor chores. Learn what you should be doing in the garden in November. Plant Spring Bulbs By this point in the season, look for spring bulbs being sold at a discount. Look for bulbs that are firm to the touch with no signs of mold. Consider planting daffodils, which deliver reliable spring color and clumps that will increase in size over time. Choose varieties that flower at different times, and you can have daffodils in bloom for up to two months. Start with ‘February Gold,’ then ‘Tete-a-Tete,’ and then ones like ‘Ice Follies’ (shown). Daffodils are critter-resistant; deer and rabbits both ignore them. The stems make excellent cut flowers that last long in…
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October Gardening To-Do List
I like to include some good alternative items among all of the supposed bigger topics. So here is October’s gardening to do list. Look for some other irrelevant items soon. This information is mostly complements of HGTV. I have tried to make this generally applicable to Northern Nevada but has good general information for most locations. If your area has unique issues to deal with, I suggest you contact HGTV or other gardening sites to get information that applies to your area. There are lots of other tasks that are not included here such repairing your raised bed planters, taking down and storing trellises used for vines or vertical vegetable gardens, getting the last of your tomatoes in before the first freeze, cleaning and storing…
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September Gardening To-Do List
Mostly borrowed from HGTV Plant Fall Annuals Watch for pansies at your favorite plant shopping spot and pick up enough to fill pots and planting beds. Fall-planted pansies stage a flower show all autumn long in most regions. In warmer zones, pansies deliver fresh-faced color through winter. Ideal temperatures for flower development are nights in the 40s F and days in the 60s F. In the landscape, avoid planting pansies where they’ll be exposed to road salt or standing water. A well-drained location is the secret to overwintering pansies, especially in regions where snow cover melts in spring. Pansies with medium-size flowers generally survive winter better than large-flowered varieties, a fact that’s most important in Zones 4 and 5. Replenish Mulch Give your landscape a refresh by…
