Keeping up with the Gardening times...........

Each fall, Kansas State University's Research and Extension department hosts a statewide Master Gardener conference in Manhattan.  This year 270 MG's from across the state gathered for two days of advanced training classes.  Not only is it a wonderful resource for learning new gardening techniques, it is a great time to touch base with old friends.  Often times......... the info exchanged at the coffee tables is as valuable as a formal class! 

Our opening speaker was David Salman, President/Chief Horticulturist from High Country Gardens, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  He has spent over 26 years in pursuit of better plants for western landscapes.  My first mental flash about New Mexico is sand and cactus.  David did a great job of dispelling this idea.  He presented beautiful photos of the mountainous areas around Santa Fe. The key being........ use of plants that readily adapt to the climate with minimum water and care.  Many of these plants will thrive in our Kansas gardens.  I quickly compiled a "mental list" of plants I sure want to try next year.  You will want to check out his catalog and make a list of your own.  You can find the catalog as well as many other facts and photos of High Country Gardens by checking it out on Google. 

Davie Salman, High Country Gardens

Low maintenance garden in Sante Fe, N.M.

High Country Garden catalog

Another program was on Landscaping our home yards with the idea of making up "rooms".  We were instructed to first establish what each area of our yard would function as.  There are three major areas, Private, Service and public. Tips were given as to movement into and through these outdoor rooms.  This is a new program from K-State.  We were their first class presentation. 

Example of a landscape drawing

Color and the use of it was a program presented by Sandy DeFoe.  Many examples of color indoors and out were shown.  We are encouraged to look at upscale fashion, home decorating and gardening magazines to detect colors for the next season.  Not only do the colors of flowers change with the year but also the size and shape of blossoms are ever changing.  Color in our flower beds plays a big part.  Cool colors recede and warm colors jump forward.  If we would like our beds to have the illusion of looking deeper, we could plant cooler blues towards the back of our bed and edge it with a hot orange!  Neat trick hugh?

Basic Color Wheel





If you are seeing a color or design over and over again, you are looking at a current trend.



Paint chips can be a "free" source of playing with color.

 My favorite class this year was Books, Blogs and Columns by Gregg Eyestone, Riley County Horticulture Extension Agent and Dr. James K. Roush, Riley County Master Gardener.  The Extension service has it's blog at rileycountyextension.blogspot.com.  Jim's blog is kansasgardenmusings.blogspot.com.  He has also written a book, Garden Musings.  These are both good blogs and will lead you to many more gardening blogs by checking out the blogs that they subscribe to.  One thing leads to another! 

Another blog that you will enjoy!

Malabar Spinach

Malabar Spinach is not spinach at all but it sure looks like it and tastes like it!  I stumbled on to it in a seed catalog last winter.  It was billed as being heat tolerant, bolt resistant and would last through out the summer. 

While visiting with some other Master Gardeners, I found out that some of them had seen it growing in Olathe at K-State's demo gardens.  By the time they found it, it was growing huge.  Vining up and spilling over a trellis.  This gave me hope for a successful crop of Malabar of my own.

Not sure why, but mine was slow, slow, slow in taking off.  We had a really diverse (to say the least) growing season so that was likely the problem.  After a bit of babying..... it took off.  It's best to get it training onto a trellis early on.  The mid stem is thick so will break off easily if forced to stand up straight later on. 

Right now we are having lots of Malabar spinach at our table.  The leaves get large and it has a thicker texture to it.  Looks like it was worth messing with all Summer after all!

Plan for Spring this Fall ........ with perennials

Now is the time to start thinking about your Perennial Gardens for next Spring.  It's time to add new plants that you decide to try.  It's time to divide and transplant those plants that have outgrown their spaces. 

One of our Master Gardener instructors drew the conclusion that the holiday is called "labor day" because this is the time to reseed our lawns and get our perennials started.  Of course he was a bit off base but never the less, I always remember to get started early in the fall season!

The idea is to let these plants have a nice long root growing session before frost.  This reminds me ....... a gal who grows perennial grasses for a living once told me that these grasses do not have long enough legs (roots) to survive fall transplanting well.  She warned that they are best started in the longer growing season of Spring. 

 Once you have your plants in the ground, go ahead and mulch them with a good layer of compost and keep them well watered.  If you have planted something that will die back and will be slow to come back up next Spring it is helpful to place a small wire flag at the site.  Write the plant name on the plastic flag and you'll be set!

Take a walk around your gardens and see if there are overgrown plants that need divided.  If you have your eye on something that your neighbor has offered to share this is the time to do that too.  I have been in several garden centers this week and they are offering beautiful perennials to take home.  Hope you will use this last growing season opportunity to play in the dirt a bit longer!