Ornamental Grasses Database

Here is an excellent resource for ornamental grasses. Most of the links have growing information as well as a photograph.

Soil pH Impacts Nutrient Utilization

You might read the title of this post and immediately skip to something much more intriguing on the Internet...but wait! This is important! Give me a minute to elaborate. When the pH of your soil gets too low (as it tends to do here in Southern Arkansas) the nutrients in the soil become less available to your plants. It's that simple. Just one more reason you should be soil sampling!

Soil Test!

I confess: I hadn't soil tested my garden in over 4 years. (yikes) Last year things didn't go so well, not only in my garden but in many gardens in this area. What a crazy wet year 2009 was. So, determined to turn over a new leaf (no pun intended) I collected soil samples (this process took a total of 7 minutes) and sent them in thinking to myself "I bet I need to lime". Guess what! my pH was actually in the 6.5 range in all my gardens! Now I'm a BIG proponent of 'lazy method' gardening, but had I chosen to take the 'lazy' way out I would have limed based on my hunch. My soil report had other surprises for me. My Phosphorus and Potassium (the last two numbers on the fertilizer bag) were above optimum. So the 'lazy' method of just throwing out some 13-13-13 fertilizer would be overkill and unnecessary as well as expensive.

So the take-home message? Soil test. It's free (in Arkansas), its fast, and it could save you $$.

Plant Disease Newsletter March

Includes: Orchid, Kolanchoe, blackberry, turnip and mustard.

http://plantpathology.uark.edu/Number1-2010.pdf

Raised Beds For Back Comfort

Visit the Noble Foundation website for information about back "friendly" raised bed designs.

http://www.noble.org/ag/Horticulture/RaisedBedForBack/index.html