Watering for Survival

Tree Gator

Water is the life blood of plants. When they cannot get enough they suffer. Signs of this suffering include wilting, brown leaves, and dead stems and branches. Drought stricken plants may eventually die from lack of water or pest problems that infect them as a result of being under drought stress. Watering plants can help them survive, but during extreme drought no one can afford to water everything in their yard. Setting priorities and watering for survival will help you keep the most important plants in your landscape healthy. 

It is not realistic to try to keep everything in your yard alive through extreme drought. Instead gardeners should set priorities and focus their watering efforts on those plants that are most valuable and likely to perform well in the future. Survival watering involves targeting water applications to only high priority plants and applying water so it soaks deeply into the soil. Treegators are special bags for watering newly planted trees and shrubs that are designed to slowly release water into the soil. Slow, deep watering is especially important during drought. You can achieve similar results using soaker hoses or buckets with holes in the bottoms. 

Learn more! Read the rest of the story on the Pender County Cooperative Extension website, http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=news&ci=LAWN+139.  

For more suggestions on how you can conserve water at home and in your yard, take the 40 Gallon Challenge. On the program’s website, www.40gallonchallenge.org, you can pledge to adopt water-saving practices and see how many gallons of water you can expect to save.

Learn more about indoor and outdoor water conservation from these great resources:

• Save Water NC: http://www.savewaternc.org/
• Water Use It Wisely: http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/
• Water Wise Works!: http://www.tarheelgardening.com/waterwise.html

Staying Ahead of Stink Bugs

Cloudy spot - caused by stink bug feeding

Stink bugs and their cousins, the leaf footed bugs, are common pests on many fruits and vegetables in the southeast. Gardeners most frequently notice these pests on tomatoes, where their feeding injury causes hard yellow spots to form just under the tomato skin, a condition known as cloudy spot. 

Populations of both of these difficult to control insects build up over the season, peaking in late summer and early fall. Control efforts taken now will help you stay ahead of these malodorous pests. 

Adult Green Stink Bug

 Learn more about how to recognize and control these common garden pests - read the rest of the story on the Pender County Cooperative Extension website, http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=news&ci=LAWN+138.

Adult Leaf Footed Bug

If you have questions about stink bugs, or other garden pests, contact your local Cooperative Extension office. In Pender County call 259-1235, visit our office at 801 S. Walker Street in Burgaw (office hours: Mon – Fri, 8am – 5pm), or post your questions online using our ‘Ask an Expert’ widget available at http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=askanexpert.

To receive weekly emails about timely gardening topics, subscribe to the Pender Gardener email listserve by sending an email to mj2@lists.ncsu.edu. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the message put: subscribe pendergardener

Time to Check for Bagworms!

Do you have shrubs that are covered with brown, spindle shaped sacks like those in this picture? If so, your shrubs have bagworms and you need to treat now to prevent serious damage. 

Bagworms are a type of caterpillar that feed on many evergreen shrubs, especially conifers like Leyland cypress. Treating now will stop bagworms from feeding this year and will help prevent another outbreak next year. Both natural and synthetic pesticides are available to control these pests.

To find out more about controlling bagworms, including what products are available, read the rest of the story on the Pender County Cooperative Extension website, http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=news&ci=LAWN+137.

If you have questions about bagworms, or other garden pests, contact your local Cooperative Extension office. In Pender County call 259-1235, visit our office at 801 S. Walker Street in Burgaw (office hours: Mon – Fri, 8am – 5pm), or post your questions online using our ‘Ask an Expert’ widget available at http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=askanexpert.

Find out more about bagworms from this NC Extension fact sheet: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/O&T/trees/ort081e/ort081e.htm.

To receive weekly emails about timely gardening topics, subscribe to the Pender Gardener email listserve by sending an email to mj2@lists.ncsu.edu. Leave the subject line blank. In the body of the message put: subscribe pendergardener

Become a Master Gardener Volunteer!

Do want to learn more about gardening? Would you like to share your knowledge with others? Do you have time to volunteer in your community? If so, you should become a Master Gardener Volunteer!

Master Gardener Volunteers are people just like you who enjoy gardening and want to share their passion and knowledge with others. Master Gardeners volunteer with their local Cooperative Extension’s horticulture outreach program to share sustainable gardening information with people in their community.  The first step to becoming a Master Gardener is to attend Master Gardener training. 

Pender County Cooperative Extension is now accepting applicants to their 2011 Master Gardener training course, which begins August 16th. To find out more about the Master Gardener Program, download an application and training schedule, visit http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/content/mg or contact Charlotte Glen by calling 910-259-1235 or email charlotte_glen@ncsu.edu.  

Making Your Landscape FireWise

Pine Straw mulch is highly flammable.

Along with forests, wildfires are a natural part of our region that help balance and renew local ecosystems. While both appealing and rewarding, living within a forest does increase the risk of your home being damaged by wildfire, but did you realize how you plant and maintain your landscape can also affect the risk of wildfire damaging your home? If you live among or near forested land you should be particularly careful about which plants are in your landscape, where you place them, and how you care for them.

The concept of FireWise landscaping, developed by N.C. State University, the U.S. Forestry Service, the University of Florida, and others, emphasizes plant choice, placement, and maintenance to reduce the risk of wildfires damaging homes in communities surrounded by trees. One of the key principles of FireWise landscaping is maintaining a buffer zone around homes designed to minimize the spread of fire. Known as the ‘survivable space’, this zone should extend a minimum of 30’ in all directions.

Within this zone, residents should avoid using plants and materials known to be highly flammable. To learn more about these plants and maintenance practices that reduce the risk of wildfire entering your landscape read the rest of the story on the Pender County Cooperative Extension website, http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=news&ci=LAWN+136.

To learn more about making your landscape FireWise, visit the NC FireWise website, http://www.ncfirewise.org, where you can download an individual assessment sheet that will help you rate your home and property’s fire risk, as well as copy of the NC Extension publication ‘Firewise Landscaping in North Carolina’.