April 2008 Archives

Get ready to learn about butterfly gardening - growing plants in your garden to attract butterflies. That is the topic of the 1st Tuesday in the Garden series for May in the IDEA Garden, located in the southeast corner of the Tyler Rose Garden Center. The IDEA Garden has been designated as a Monarch Waystation due to its diversity of butterfly nectar and larval food plants, include at least 2 species of Asclepias, commonly known as butterfly weed - a favored larval food for the imperiled monarch.

This Tuesday, May 6 program is free, open to the public, starts at noon, and lasts about an hour long. There is ample parking available outside of the southeast gate. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs as seating in the garden is limited.

If you have been to the IDEA Garden before, you know how beautiful and diverse this

demonstration garden is all year long. A brand new feature is a pergola which now covers the patio where our lecture series are held. Also, 2 new benches have been installed to increase seating.

The "First Tuesday in the Garden" programs will continue monthly through the middle of the summer. The next program is "Texas Superstars" on June 3^rd. The series will then resume in September.

Master Gardeners, a volunteer organization of Texas AgriLife Extension, are people from all walks of life who enjoy and are dedicated to teaching others about gardening, plant diseases and pests. Additional information can be found at the Master Gardener's website, http://scmg.tamu.edu or the Texas AgriLife Extension Service East Texas Gardening website, EastTexasGardening.tamu.edu.

 

Mark your calendars for the 2008 Spring Home Garden Tour on May 3, sponsored by Smith County Master Gardeners, a volunteer organization of Texas AgriLife Extension Service.

This year's tour features 5 private gardens in Tyler. Tour times are from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and will be held rain or shine. Tickets are on sale for $8.00 prior to the date of the tour at Brookshire's, 100 Rice Rd, Tyler; The Potpourri House, 3320 Troup Highway, Tyler; Al H. Horaney's, Inc., 5520 Old Jacksonville Hwy, Tyler; and Blue Moon Nursery, 13062 FM 279, Edom.  Tickets may also be purchased by mail from Home Garden Tour, 13270 Oak Hill Lane, Flint, TX 75762.  The deadline for ordering by mail is April 21. Tickets may be purchased the day of the tour for $10.00 at any of the gardens on the tour.  For more information call 903-590-2980 or visit http://scmg.tamu.edu

After a banner year last year, catching 16 moles on my small < 1 acre home lot, 2008 started off rather quietly. Last month I caught one mole, using the Victor Out of Site Trap. This was after unsuccessfully trying to shovel a mole out while it was making a mound. That was the first time I had encountered a "mound-in-progress", and perhaps I was too hasty in my attempt to flip it out while the dirt was being shoved up.

Yesterday, I noticed, in the same area by the street, a fresh mound, and sure 'nuf, it was in progress. So, I hurried, got my sharp-shooter shovel and waited patiently for it to start shoving more dirt up. Patience did not pay off this time, though, and it got away.

I figured the creature would be really spooked, because I excavated a bit to examine its very large tunnel system going off in either direction from the mound. At any rate, I left the shovel in a nearby spot just in case. This morning, there was a BIG fresh mound in the exact same spot. I could almost hear it chanting, "Nah, nah, nah, nah nah nah". 

So, the saga continues. I'm waiting for more apparent surface ridges appear to start my trapping program, realizing moles from neigboring properties will always recolonize the vacated runs.

We are seeing an interesting number of galls already this spring. Galls have always fascinated me, mainly because of the many curious shapes and colors on such a wide range of plants. Most galls we see in trees are caused by very small insects, often tiny wasps. Galls are triggered to form when a gall-making insect lays eggs in the leaf tissue. The plant's tissue begins to grow around the egg(s) forming the gall. Once triggered by egg-laying, the growth cannot be stopped. The developing larva inside the gall feeds on the tissue.  Each gall maker produces a distinctly shaped gall on its specific host. Therefore, they are usually named based on the host plant and shape of the gall.

Several people have asked about large, unusual growths on their red oak trees. These galls, called oak apple galls, are very conspicuous, about the size of a golf ball. The oak apple gall, which is mainly formed on red oaks, is kind of hollow, soft and full of spongy tissue, and in the center is the young developing insect inside a harder core.

Most galls are mere curiosities in the plant world, and for the most part do not interfere with or hurt the host. As mentioned above, once formed, gall development cannot be stopped, and there is no control. Nature, however, provides its own control through various kinds of parasites that prey and feed upon the larvae inside the gall. This is why you rarely see heavy gall infestations on a tree year after year. Occasionally galls can get so numerous that the leaves may drop, and a couple of types of galls are formed on stem tissue rather than on leaves. These can cause significant twig damage and dieback if in they occur in large numbers.