Petee

This is the most fun I've ever had in gardening!  Sharing it with people who want to learn to grow their own food can't be better.

This is the most fun I've ever had in gardening!  Sharing it with people who want to learn to grow their own food can't be better.

This is the most fun I've ever had in gardening!  Sharing it with people who want to learn to grow their own food can't be better.

This is the most fun I've ever had in gardening!  Sharing it with people who want to learn to grow their own food can't be better.

The BUDS Gardeners will be releasing Monarchs most days at 3:45 from now for the next couple of weeks at Charlie's Alternators.  Bring the kids, bring your Mom if you are a kid!  Come and borrow a kit to raise your own as the native Monarchs will be arriving any day.
 
Look for the sign at curbside to see if there will be a release that day or just show up to see.
 
For more information contact Cheryl at cshenkle@verizon.net or call 371-3322.

They are almost identical except that the male has two spots on his wings that the females do not.  Also, the female is slightly darker with heavier veins.

My latest frost in the garden was about 1972 on June 21.  We didn't have a lot of sources to get plants then and the stumps of the frozen plants beat the transplants we did find.  The corn didn't come back, peppers were stunted, but tomatoes returned.

Apples can develop frost cracks but I wouldn't worry about it.  Just imagine the farmers with 60 acres of apples on a night like tonight.

Snow shouldn't hurt anything but the tomatoes.  Depending on how low the temperature gets, it should all be fine.  Remember all the snow and cold when the daffodils and hyacinth were getting ready to bloom, not a scratch!

Snow shouldn't hurt anything but the tomatoes.  Depending on how low the temperature gets, it should all be fine.  Remember all the snow and cold when the daffodils and hyacinth were getting ready to bloom, not a scratch!

Aphids aren't such a bad pest to have.  Just shoot them off of the plant with a hard burst of water.
 
Iris likes to be in well drained soil so if it feels damp then it is probably too wet.

You may want to do this walk on Sunday:
 
Come to Bilger's Rocks this Sunday May 15th at 1 pm and take a guided, educational mushroom and fungi walk through and around our rocks. Bring a basket for yours and the group's finds if you wish to take something home.

They are almost identical except that the male has two spots on his wings that the females do not.  Also, the female is slightly darker with heavier veins.

They are almost identical except that the male has two spots on his wings that the females do not.  Also, the female is slightly darker with heavier veins.

Anyone who wants to be part of the program this year can let me know. 

This summer the BUDS Gardeners will be carrying out a project to encourage local Butterfly lovers to collect Monarch eggs and raise them safely to maturity when they can be released.  We're hoping to develop a program where people who cannot help, can watch!  let us know if you would like to be involved in anything from egg hunting and collecting, to raising them, to being part of a series of releases.
 
I will add info here as we develop it.  This list is a series of U Tubes that are great!
 
Raising Monarchs from eggs
 
Part 1           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I5F4AHyQHs
Part 2          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehq__6MQP3w
Part 3          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJU8-FpGI78
Part 4          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84Ha_TjUpEk
Part 5          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-E71kVxFtI
 
 
Grow a Butterfly Garden
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u96-EblEUec

One of our females was found in El Rosario, Mexico on February 25, 2016.  Hopefully she was able to survive long enough to lay eggs and get a generation headed back to Pennsylvania this summer.

The flowers along that route would never bloom again!

The flowers along that route would never bloom again!

Watch for fresh new growth in the next couple of weeks.  If they stay yellow then maybe they will need a weak dose of high nitrogen fertilizer.  The yellow should be temporary because of the cold temperatures.

Try to aim for species tulips which are stronger and live longer.  For hybrids, dig deeper, feed well and expect that they may fail after 2-3 years, but not always with careful nurturing.
 
In about a month anyone will be welcome to come and take a huge shovel full of daffodils from my fence line.  Just contact me first.

You can find daffodils anywhere.  Just dig them up (not from your neighbor's garden without permission) and divide them after the flowers are done.  Prepare the planting bed well and spread them out to at least a foot apart.  In about three years they will start to fill in and you can leave them in place without crowding or losing blooms for at least ten years.  Look on the internet for planting directions or call your county Master Gardeners for specific planting information.  Clearfield and Jefferson can call 849-7361.
 
Once those bulbs are done flowering this spring you can dig them up and store them in a refrigerator in peat moss till fall if absolutely necessary, or you can transplant them directly back in to the garden.  They will not flower as well if they are dug up then but they will survive.  The new planting location must be prepared well.
 
You can also mark where they are in a current garden and dig them in the fall when they are already fat and sassy from summer bulb growth.  Then they will flower better next spring. 
 
You can also find them in local stores about the end of August although there isn't a lot of variety like you will find in the catalogs.
 
You can also call me and come with a shovel in a few weeks for daffodils.  Mine have been in place successfully since 1993 and they bloom great.  If the bed is not prepared well they will get overcrowded and not produce many blossoms for as long.

Your frozen daffodils may perk back up on a warmer day.  I've thought they were frozen but unless they look waterlogged and transparent they may not be dead, just protecting their cells till it's warmer.
 
There are different kinds of tulips, species which are the originals and hybrids which have been crossed for colors, height, season and anything else they have think is a selling point.  Species tulips seem to be hardier.

There is actually a beneficial biotic exchange when you touch clean living soil so it explains why people love playing in the "dirt"!  Clean soil isn't dirt but regardless of the term used, it does touch the soul.

This country will never return to it's native state which would be before humans ever set foot in it.  Humans certainly aren't going to leave but we are commanded to care for the animals around us.  Common sense and a sense of "harvesting' has to be made a precedent if the animals are to survive well.