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April 6, 2018
Random Dirt
A Letter from the President…
Many of you may or may not know that I had major right foot surgery on Friday, February 23, 2018, and the ol’president is still off and recuperating from the ordeal. My family now refers to me as Frankenfoot, hold the Mayo. Let me just say it’s not a fun time for me and being under ‘house-arrest’ and I especially hear the call of the wild, freedom and nature stirring in all her grandeur, even in Lea County, New Mexico. I am banned from gardening activities for another 4 to 5 weeks, but I have become accustomed to riding the “trike” around and at least getting outdoors in the “SUN”. I still cannot put any weight on my foot for another 3 and half weeks, and then hopefully will be in a walking boot (but no field goals allowed).
You learn to overcome some situations and learn to make other strategies work for you. Yes, I have perfected a way to garden even on the ride-around, no weight trike. I did a Dr. Dirt video at home planting violas and for some Johnny-Jump-Ups (for some of us ‘long-in-the-tooth’ folk and know these plants by that name.)
Donna, my wife, and I have visited Home Depot and Lowes Home Improvement stores’ garden centers numerous times since February. My freedom and escape…she loves it when I load up the trike’s front basket, and a shopping cart to boot. You just can’t keep a gardener down.
I even convinced my daughter to get in on the act too. We planted two of the raised planter beds in the Western Heritage Gardens on St. Patrick’s Day. I have always planted potatoes and onions on this day. We bonded together for a while as we planted two varieties of potatoes, grow bags of garlic cloves and finished the morning venture with dad in-tow with Gourmet Salad Lettuce combos and Northern Lights Swiss Chard. She even did two videos of Dr. Dirt’s “In the Garden” for me. So, the trike riding did around the raised vegetables planters worked out great.
As I write this article today, I am remembering the Vernal Equinox happened at 10:15 a.m. this morning in New Mexico. Your calendar will call it spring. A time for a refreshing and new birth, whether in the realms of God’s created Nature around us or the awakening deep within us to the new season.
In the meantime, the Western Heritage Horticultural Society will be planning activities for the 2018 gardening season. The very capable Exec Board will be getting some programs and workshops lined up for the membership and the public in the next coming weeks, while I am still of the mend.
Watch for the coming attractions and plant something will you.
David Hooten
Hort-Society
President
A very possibly stinging moment…
For the lame and halted…Just getting home from the hospital and the second morning, I am on the ‘throne’, discombobulated from my pain pills. You all know the drill!
You’re not quite lucid, all your faculties are not quite firing at the same time, I look down, and I am thinking to myself, that’s an odd place to be bleeding from…right.
Then the mental lights come on and ‘holy crap’, my mind becomes fired-up in full alert, as I look at my foot with a damn 2 and a half-inch large scorpion perched on my surgery wraps. I am thinking, forget the toilet, forget the non-weight bearing doctor’s command…fear and flight response is kicking-in.
I can see this scorp crawling near my open toe spaces, yes, I had the cell phone for the pic, (my wife said do not go anywhere without the cell phone and in case you fall of the trike), HECK I wanted to crawl on top of the trike!!! Then, I grabbed the toilet bowl brush and beat the ever living hell out of that large scorpion…one of life’s little very unique moments, if only for a candid camera video. A lot of laughs from family and friends about “how was your morning/day”. Biggest problem with being subjected to pain medication was taking doubled-down doses of laxatives…..Haaaaaa!!! And that’s the rest of the story.
Ya’ll, lighten up...you needed a good laugh today. Think about yourself being in that situation! David
Heizer Middle School Project Update…
Two
x ten inch x 8-foot long boards have been painted with waterproof stain, for
the two new beds under construction at the Heizer Middle School gardens. This is a continuation of the Heizer Project
and will allow more students to participate and experiment with a larger
variety of plants. As you can see in the
photo, garden bags and raised bed soil are being used to test different growing
situations.
& the Heizer Nature Trail….
Granite
crushings have been installed over the Heizer Nature Trail walkway areas. This project is nearing completion and an
April dedication date is being set by the Heizer Middle School administration.
A water feature has been built within the Heizer Nature Trail system. This is one of five major criterias deemed necessary to acquire Nature Trails to be certified by the National Wildlife Federation. Heizer Middle School has been certified officially.
A National Wildlife Federation Certified plaque is mounted. Additional signage is being installed; currently half of the plant identification markers have been installed on the 178 plant species planted in this habitat. Other items of interest are being readied and constructed to be placed in this certified wildlife habitat and raised vegetable gardens area.
KUDOS
to the students and kids for establishing this remarkable project, and the
coordination efforts between the school staff, students, and WHHS president David
Hooten.
HAVE Gardening Questions?....
Send in your Dr. Dirt Plant Therapy question and have it answered here, and on the Society Facebook page. Down the road, you’ll find the question’s answers archived on the Society website Resources page… (http://www.nmjc.edu/museum/horticulture_resources.aspx). Dr. Dirt may even answer your question on a YouTube video.
HOW to Submit: You can send in a question or questions by emailing hortsociety16@gmail.com, Private Messaging the Society Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Western-Heritage-Horticultural-Society-615045478673551/), or by dropping off your question/s at the Western Heritage Museum lobby desk. If you want specific information about a weed or bug, do this - put the weed in a zip lock bag with a little dirt and moisture and/or a mostly undamaged bug in a container (i.e., jar, disposable plastic bowl) and drop it off at the Museum with your question/s. Make sure you include your contact info (Dr. Dirt prefers email but will make phone calls).
Note: Dr. Dirt’s Questions and Answers are now on the Society’s webpage..
just click on the Dr. Dirt’s
Plant Therapy image…
when you go here… http://www.nmjc.edu/museum/horticulture_resources.aspx
Send your Suggestions for Training…
If you liked the Society Facebook page, please Like and Share the posts…
211
people “Like” the page and we’d really like to see this page act as a gardening
resource to more folks. Due to people
sharing various posts, the page has reached people in Colorado, Texas, UK, and
Alabama. Some have “Liked” the page
although their neck of the woods has a different gardening environment.
Training/Events
Training and event dates for 2018 are forthcoming..
Articles and Tips
From a local gardener…
Two Questions for Dr.
Dirt….
What is this? I found it under some peeled back bark on my grapevine.
What you are looking at is the praying mantis egg case. On breaking it open you should notice some very young baby praying mantises. We are just a few weeks away from the babies emerging from the cocoon looking egg cases. Some are brown and others are a brighter orange-brown. They are beneficial insects for any garden or landscape. They true bug-eaters, and no green plants are eaten.
You can buy “Praying Mantis egg cases” on Amazon
or from other suppliers.
What is this? I found it on my grapevine too.
You have a “borer” working in the grape stem. The frass is the borer’s excrement mixed with the sap rising in the canes as the borer is tunneling inside and eating the soft tissues.
Usually,
you do not see this in grapes. I have only seen it a few times myself. Just always
work back into the mature grapevine – pruning out 2 or 3 feet and you should be
able to remove the borer. You cannot use any borer treating insecticides, as
the chemical will be in your grapes to eat.
Yes, these are exit holes of the borers. These borer
adults will be a hard-shelled insects, not miller moth or butterfly. There are
several species some with color and others brown or black, but they will have
long antennae. They will become more active as our weather warms up.
Veggie History..
Scroll down the article, and click “here” in some of the short paragraphs about some of the vegetables for more info.
Go here to read the article (copy and paste the link)..
theplantguide.net/2018/03/17/the-history-about-each-vegetable/
New Mexico State University has been conducting a Pollinator Project for a while…
http://aces.nmsu.edu/ipm/pollinator-project.html
In recent years, domesticated honeybee populations have suffered severe declines in many parts of the world - a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Colony Collapse Disorder is thought to be due to a complex combination of factors, including habitat loss, pathogens, exposure to insecticides, and other stresses. The decline in honeybee populations has stimulated increasing interest in providing habitat both for domesticated (hive) bees and for the native wild bees that can help provide pollination services when honeybees are in short supply.
New Mexico State University is collaborating with the NRCS Plant Materials Center for New Mexico in testing more than 100 species of (mostly native) plants for their ability to attract and retain pollinators and other beneficial insects. The project started in 2010 at the Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center/NM Plant Materials Center, and, thanks to funding from the Western IPM Center, we have now replicated this initial trial at three other sites: the NMSU Farmington Agricultural Science Center, the NMSU Tucumcari Agricultural Science Center and an additional site in Vado, NM.
A 10 page downloadable PDF growing chart of New Mexico Pollinator Plants..
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_PLANTMATERIALS/publications/nmpmctn12632.pdf
So many things you can do with a teapot and a diamond drill bit for glass or ceramic. Do a little research on the best way to drill the teapot, bowl, etc. Here’s a good starting place…
Remember...
From the Veranda of Shirley and Thomas Blackman…
An English Robin..
And an
English Garden..
A lovely Red Bud tree, and one of Lea County’s first signs of
Spring.
Punny!!
Please email your photos of flowers and other gardening efforts to hortsociety@nmjc.edu. We’d really like to give kudos to your hard work in the newsletter and on our Society Facebook page.
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