The vaccines are here and our future looks good for life getting back to normal. Eating out, visiting theme parks and enjoying the great outdoors here in Florida is in our near future.
We are so ready for this!
But…..don’t forget to continue to take care of your gardens and yards. We are getting near summer. The weather is getting hot and the rainy season has not yet started so you need to be sure that your irrigation system is in good repair. Make sure that the nozzles are aimed correctly, as you don’t want to be wasting water on the sidewalk or roadway. You need ½ to ¾ inch of water twice a week to encourage good root formation. Long roots help the grass stay healthy in drought conditions and help keep out weeds. This month is also a good time to fertilize your lawn with a good phosphorus-free fertilizer. The grass is now in an active growing mode and needs the extra nutrients to grow robustly and stay green. When the summer rains come, you can turn off your irrigation system, as we tend to get plenty of water from the rain. Also, do not heavily fertilize through the summer, as you don’t want the heavy rains to wash the fertilizer into our waterways.
We had a great speaker at our March Zoom meeting, as Teresa Watkins talked about growing roses here in Florida. Roses are harder to grow in Florida but certain varieties do quite well with a little extra TLC. Try to purchase a rose variety grafted onto Fortuniana rootstock for healthier, longer-lived plants. Knockout roses are always a good variety to give great color to your gardens throughout many months of the year.
Our speaker for the April 21, 9 a.m. meeting will be Eva Pabon and she will be talking about container gardening. Growing flowers and vegetables in containers allows you to have extra color on your porches and around your landscape. Containers also allow you to grow plants that otherwise might be damaged by nematodes if planted in the soil. Eva is the Master Gardener coordinator for Osceola County.
The Club wishes to thank those that support our scholarship and community service funding by participating in our biannual pine straw sales. We had a good sale this spring and appreciate your business. Pine straw is such a good mulch to use in your gardens. It helps keep the weeds down and stays in place during heavy rainfall. We will be announcing scholarship winners next month.
This fall we will be back to having live, in person meetings at Heritage Hall with lectures including bee keeping, bonsai trees, butterfly gardens and blueberry growing. We will be also be having monthly field trips to gardens and other area points of interest. Our meetings are always on the third Wednesday at 9 a.m. If you are interested in joining our club, please contact Brad at docwags@gmail.com.
By Brad Wagoner, Garden Club President