Healthy Soil- Too much of a good thing?

Recently I attended our annual forum where all the Extension staff across the state come together and we learn and share.  The sharing of programs, county issues and among us plant folk, plant and soil issues are the most telling.  There seems to be a common theme this year, gardens being over amended and a misunderstanding of organics and fertilizer versus compost is evident.  Both compost and fertilizer can be organic, but they are not the same thing. 

Compost image, Colorado State

I want to point out before I go further, that Extension and Extension staff have conventional and organic options on all our factsheets and that we all care about our environment, it’s why we have the jobs we do because we are passionate about our world.  I think it is very important understand and get the facts about your soil prior to adding amendment or fertilizer.  This is very similar to practicing IPM- Integrated pest management where you observe / monitor, proper id, learn more about the issue (or system), determine action, choose tactic(s), evaluate.  IPM is monitoring the situation, gathering the facts and doing something when needed.  https://cmg.extension.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/59/2020/01/GN-100-Integrated-Pest-Management.pdf  So think of these similar steps in your landscape and how to improve your soil.  Get the facts before applying anything and to improve when you need to improve, plant the right plant in the right place and you will be successful.  If you have never done a soil test, this is the foundation of the garden and a good place to start.  The CSU lab is currently moving so not testing currently, other great laboratories that understand our Western soils are Ward Laboratories https://www.wardlab.com/, Servitech https://servitech.com/crop-consulting/soil-sampling and American Agricultural Laboratory Inc. https://www.amaglab.com/

Once you pick a lab, stick with them as their procedures might be slightly different.  You want to be able to compare apples to apples down the road.  Please read how to take an appropriate sample and tell them exactly what you are planting (your crop): buffalo grass, tomatoes, plum tree- the more specific you are, the better the recommendation they can give you.

	University of Hawaii Soil Management

Let’s go back to the word organic.  It was first used to describe the organic matter (basically plant material: leaves, roots, stems, & microorganisms) that is in the soil.  We still use it this way, but it has also morphed into products that are naturally based.  Here I am sticking to the original definition.  Our native soils in Western Colorado are naturally 1-2% organic matter.  This is why our native plants do not prefer high amounts of compost being added to our soil, it’s not what they are acclimated to.  Then somewhere along the way organic morphed into meaning using naturally sourced fertilizers and pesticides.  We know from experience and as shown in the soil pie chart that we want up to 5% organic matter in the soil for the general typical landscape plants and vegetable and flower gardens.  When soil test results get closer to this 5% organic matter, the need for nutrients like nitrogen will drop because it is being released of some nutrients from the organic matter (plant based and microorganisms).  This article from Minnesota gives a good explanation of other reasons too much organic matter is not good.  https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/compost-and-soil-organic-matter-more-merrier Of course our soil is going to be different, but the having too much organic matter is the same.  We general have good minerals (phosphorus, potassium, sulfur) in our soils.  Occasionally we will see a micronutrient low due to the pH of the soil, high pH affects the accessibility of certain nutrients to specific plants.  Example: Silver maples have trouble accessing iron in high pH soils resulting in chlorosis.  Adding more iron to the soil doesn’t work unless it is chelated. 

Microbes in the soil, invisible to the naked eye-

                                                                    Colorado State
Example 2: Someone was having trouble growing vegetables, since the pH was high they continued to add sulfur, which was already at a good level.  This caused a toxicity of sulfur in the soil which causes a reduced rate of growth and necrosis.  Since we have high amounts of calcium carbonate in our soils and there already is enough sulfur, our soils are buffered which means it is very hard to change the pH so we focus on what we can change and improve.  So please do a soil sample, talk to Extension if you need more explanation, pick the right plants for your soil and you will be successful. 

Lastly, pick the right soil amendment if your organic matter is below 5%.  This includes using compost and it is ok to ask for a sample of compost and have it tested before you buy or use it.  Compost is a soil amendment, though it may help with nutrients down the road, it is not considered fertilizer or a major source of nutrients. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/choosing-a-soil-amendment/

If your plants are needing fertilizer, than use the appropriate fertilizer. Here is understanding fertilizer.

https://cmg.extension.colostate.edu/Gardennotes/232.pdf

Hopefully that helps in understanding that you can have TOO MUCH of a good thing.  It is like finding out that watermelon is good for you and you eat the whole watermelon, you might not feel so good afterwards.  It is important to keep things in balance.  By adding too much of one thing, other things have to become out of balance.  Look back at the soil pie chart, if there is too much water, there would be less air.  If too much organic matter, there would be less mineral particles, water or oxygen.  ALL are important. 

So hopefully if nothing else, you will do a soil sample and think about what your soil needs before you add something.

Susan Carter, Tri River Area Horticulture and Natural Resource Agent

 

 

Be Local, Go Native and Be Diverse

It’s funny how your experiences can come together.  I’m sure many of you take part in buying local food, but what about your information and the plants in your landscape? 

Starting with local information, here is a bit of history.  Thanks to President Lincoln, the land grant college system was created.  To make a long story short, each state has a college within in this Land Grant system.  Most have the word State in their title like Colorado State University, Iowa State etc…  These colleges were started to bring college to the people and not just the rich.  Out of that grew Research Stations to help the local Agriculture industry and then Extension to help spread that information to the community.

Colorado State University, Old Main

So that leads to me and the wonderful coworkers in this Extension system.  Many counties or areas in all states have an Extension office with experts that can provide you with local great information in Agriculture, Landscaping, and Family Consumer Science and many more topics.  Some of our programs you may have heard of include 4H, Master Gardener, Native Plant Master and Food Safety Master.  Volunteers in these Master Programs go through garden training, many specific to their climate and soils, so they can help spread fact based information to their local community.  Many offices like ours in Mesa County run a Master Gardener Desk where these wonderful trained Volunteers can help answer your home landscape questions giving the Agents more time to help Green Industry professionals and growers.  Can’t get much more local than that.

So, what about the plants in your landscape?

Colorado State County Map

This winter I attended a talk by Entomologist (an insect guy) and Environmental Science Professor Doug Tallamy from the University of Delaware.  I knew native plants were important but he finally connected the dots for me.  In short, native plants are the key to supporting our natural food web.  Prof. Tallamy talked about how he followed a sparrow family.  Most of us think of birds eating seeds.  But seeds are only available at the end of the season.  Mom and dad sparrow made multiple trips to a local tree, I believe an oak, and brought their babies several hundred caterpillars.  I no longer worry about a few insects on a tree.  In fact, I just had a landscaper come in.  He had gone through our Master Gardener program and had learned about IPM, Integrated Pest Management, which is where you observe and only treat when the levels of insects reaches a certain threshold and the system.  He had a client with woolly aphids on a cottonwood tree.  But he also observed many, many lady bugs.  He brought in a sample for us to look at and all we could find was the fluff left from the woolly aphids, but no more aphids.  They were all eaten.  So that is an example of the food web taking care of the issue.  No conventional or organic sprays needed.  In summary, by planting natives, you provide food for the native insects, which in turn feed the birds, lizards, and other small critters which are in turn eaten by bigger animals and insects and animals creating balance to the whole system.   I also attended a talk by David Salmon of High Country Gardens, and he too was following the recommendations of Prof. Tallamy.

Landscape at Copper Creek Mall in Salt Lake City

This week walked through a Mall, yes you heard me right, a mall in Salt Lake City where they had directed a creek and was planted by mostly plants native to the area.  I thought it was beautiful.  It provided an experience and there were many people there enjoying the space.  So you can add a few non-natives, but try plant a high per cent of natives and enjoy.  This creates and keeps a sense of place alive.  If every town and city has the same plants in their landscapes, then they all start looking the same.  I find that boring.  And non-natives can become invasive which is a whole other conversation.  Embrace the natives and plant diversity so if there are issues, it’s not a big loss.  Plus a diversity of plants provides different sources of food for the food web.  Visit your local nursery that carries native plants to buy local.  Big box stores rarely carry natives that grow in your community.

So create a diverse landscape with local native plants and enjoy the wildlife around you.  And don’t forget to visit your local Extension office to get local, revel ant information because we know you can’t believe everything on the internet.  Get your research based information here.

Susan L Carter
Horticulture Agent, Arborist and Native Plant Master

CSU Extension, Tri River Area

Bringing Home the Magic of Disney Horticulture and a Fresh Look at the 2015 EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival.

A few weeks back I was on the phone finalizing some of my plans for my magical vacation to Walt Disney World where I would be attending the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival. The cast member on the other end of the line was a really great guy. He then asked me if I had ever been to the Flower and Garden Festival before. I told him not as a guest, but mainly as a former cast member. He asked what I did when I was a cast member and I told him Horticulture at EPCOT and Downtown Disney.

The cast member, Guy, we will call him, asked me what I do now, what I learned and what some of my favorite parts of doing horticulture and taking care of the landscapes at EPCOT were. I told him I learned a lot from my experience, but that what I was taught in school was the science of environmental horticulture. The way Disney does horticulture is not only a science but it also is an art form, what I call "entertainment horticulture." I learned that the way we manage landscapes can vary greatly depending on the nature of the landscape. After all, horticulture is where science meets art.
I shared with him some of the Disney horticulture “magic” and things I learned while part of Disney horticulture which if you read on, I will share some of that with you. Suffice it to say, a lot of fairies use a lot of pixie dust to make the magic happen! I do my best to keep some of the magic alive in my garden today and I wanted to share two things with you today. First the “magic” of Disney’s horticulture and how you can incorporate that into your garden and then the 2015 EPCOT International Flower and garden Festival!

Disney does a fantastic job with roses! One of my favorite varieties is the Knockout rose. They are so easy to maintain! Shear them to prune, and they just keep re-blooming. Although generous amounts of fertilizer and mulch, I mean pixie dust, also help the process along.
They use a variety of warm and cool season flowers to help keep the park fresh all year long. Although the climate in Florida allows for year-round gardening, they do have a rotation for plant material. Every eight weeks, each bed is replanted with new annuals. There are also four season at Walt Disney World for their beds. At Christmas you notice red poinsettias, and red, pink, and white impatiens. In the spring and fall, those get replaced with red, pink, white, and a little purple pentas and red geraniums, which need deadheading on a frequent basis! In the summer Disney plants a lot of caladium. I mean a LOT! We used the standard colors of reds and pinks, but whites were especially popular under the shade of trees. The contrast created by a bed planted with white caladium and a beautiful magnolia tree with its deep green foliage had a remarkable way of brightening up that space and drawing you in! 

Disney has a different color theme for each country in EPCOT's World Showcase as well. For example, Mexico uses warm colors and a more natural looking landscape. Norway uses pastels and white. China is very formal and has little in the way of annuals. Germany uses reds, Italy uses all colors except yellow. The AA as cast members call it, the American Adventure to guests, use...? Red, white, and blue, you guessed it. France uses pastels, and Canada and UK can use pretty much any color in the rainbow. Consider a theme for your garden that consists of two or three colors and stick with that. Too many colors can overwhelm the eye and take away from the dramatic effect of the garden. Use different textures instead if you want to create something more visually appealing.

Disney is also known for the use of hanging baskets and pots. Italy, for example, has pots. Every park has hanging baskets. When you plant your pots or baskets, plant your outside row of flowers on a 45 degree angle facing you, that creates a fuller look as baskets and pots fill in and the flowers face you rather than face the sky where you will be less able to see the full effect of the color.

Where you and I have limited financial resources, we know we are going to buy a plant for an entire season. Knowing it may grow to 12 inches, you and I might buy a four pack and plant them on 6 inch centers, throw some fertilizer down, apply a good three inches of mulch and call it good. Disney knows the plants are not going to be in the landscape long enough to mature. Instead they buy a larger plant and plant the plants closer together, apply some fertilizer, mulch, and viola, an instantly mature full looking landscape. This approach works well for the art form that is Disney’s horticulture but for the average landscape is both economically and environmentally irresponsible.  

Of course, Disney is rumored to have no weeds. I can assure you, this is absolutely positively 100% true! I know, because I pulled every weed you could find. A little Disney secret, err, magic is proper mulching techniques greatly helped keep weeds down! I’d like to point out; Disney used ORGANIC mulch- pine needles, chipped wood, etc. No rock mulch to be found on Disney property. Why? Because of how bad it is for the environment, and it simply is not “show quality.”

Elsa works her magic to create the effect of frozen fractals (flowers) all around.

So now that you know some of the magic, what about the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival? I spent some time walking around EPCOT. It’s a sight to behold as EPCOT is filled with millions of blooms and over 100 topiaries! This year the theme was "EPCOT Fresh" and they incorporated edibles into the landscape.

The flower fields are replaced completely during the show. During the year, this entire berm is Bermuda grass. The sod is cut and removed for the Flower and Garden Festival. New sod is laid after the show. During the show 4 full time cast members spend their early mornings weeding and deadheading the flow field which contains nearly 700,000 annual plants.

EPCOT always looks beautiful, but after experiencing the Flower and Garden Festival, EPCOT feels insipid when the festival ends and the park’s landscapes return to normal. What makes the festival so grand isn’t just the colorful flowers planted in beds throughout Future World around the World Showcase, but also the topiary creations which bring your favorite Disney Characters to life (mine is Peter Pan) as well as the tours, horticulture classes, and presentations offered by many knowledgeable and well respected individuals in the hort industry. 

Over in Garden Town gardening programs are offered every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11-4. Programs feature information provided from Disney Gardeners, Great American Gardeners, and to the credit of Disney, University of Florida Master Gardeners and Extension Agents from Land Grant Universities who provide research based gardening solutions for your life in the form of latest trends in home gardening, techniques to help you be a successful gardener, as well as some of the Disney Horticulture secrets with some very fun and creative hands on activities that will engage gardeners of all ages. 

Disney also has an Ask an Expert station for you to stop and get one on one advice about your garden for those in Extension!

Other things that make this festival so wonderful is that is really truly is designed for all ages. Young children can enjoy the butterfly garden, the cactus garden that recreates radiator springs, mini gardens all which tell a story, and other kid-friendly activities all throughout EPCOT. Adults; as well as all the learning, there is music from many artists, including the Village People. (Tony, that’s for you.) Cooking and food demonstrations on how to cook what you grow. (Seriously, what do I do with this Kohlrabi? Nasturtium- do you eat that? Why is there and orchid flower on my plate?) As well as many amazing foods and drinks to try, all inspired by the fruits, flowers, and veggies you grow in the garden!

Annuals may be incorporated into topiaries to provide more colorful flowing and dimension in the characters. Annuals are changed out on some topiaries. Cool season annuals such as Violas and Pansies are used and changed out for impatiens and other plants that hold up to the florida heat later in the season.

Disney has moved away from the old hedged style topiaries due to the high level of maintenance.

Finneas and Ferb receives full sun all day long, where other topiaries may receive mostly shade. Watering and replacement of plant material are dependent upon environmental factors.

Simba is actually made of painted reindeer moss while the feet and arms of Rafiki are made of palm boots.

A steel frame provides the support for Snow White's ficus dress.

Each topiary has it's own irrigation system built into the frame. Chicken wire issued to provide support for sphagnum peat moss and the plugs of creeping figs. Total growing on time is approximately two months. Occasionally, figs need to be trimmed or replugged.

Buzz Lightyear is staged in front on Mission Space, adding to the theme and atmosphere of the attraction.

Tinker bell adds to the Butterfly House.
A favorite among fairies and children alike!

Additional annuals are added to the Canada Pavilion
 to simulate Butchardt Garden.

I have to pay homage to my 'friend' Peter Pan.
Look up to find him though.
Disney has learned the art of directing your eye in different directions
and optical illusion.

Disney uses flowers around the topiaries
to continue
to paint a scene.
In this case, blue salvia helps to create
the illusion that
Tic-Toc Croc is in water.