Programs: February 2009 Archives

The East Texas Commercial Fruit & Vegetable Conference, is Tuesday, February 17, at the Tyler Rose Garden Center. This all-day program focuses on commercial fruit and vegetable production, and will feature presentations in the general session on incorporating integrated pest management strategies into fruit and vegetable production, marketing fruits and vegetables, herbicides for weed control, and pesticide safety.

In the afternoon there will be 3 concurrent sessions. In the fruit session there will be talks on orchard site selection, and blackberry production. The vegetable session includes the subjects of windows for planting recommended crops and variety selections, disease updates, and tunnel houses and mulching for early crop production. The 3^rd session focuses on grapes, with an update on Pierce's Disease, and an overview of what's involved in starting a vineyard.

For agenda details, go to "Programs" under "Events & News" at EastTexasGardening.tamu.edu 

The 16^th annual East Texas Spring Landscape and Garden Conference is February 14th at the Tyler Rose Garden Center. 

One of the featured speakers for this year's program is Dr. Neil Odenwald, retired director of the School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University, and popular speaker, author and award winning landscape architect. He will give two talks on landscape design during the conference. The first will focus on practical ideas for developing the space around your home into a functional and attractive area through the art of landscaping.

The second talk is entitled "Small Space Landscaping", and will cover ideas for developing small areas of the yard into functional, comfortable and enjoyable environments.

Also on the program is Dr. Dotty Woodson, Texas AgriLife Extension Program Specialist from Dallas, who will discuss how to capture, or "harvest", rainfall on your property and put it to use watering your plants. This water conserving technique is a hot topic due to increasing demands on existing water sources and as recurring droughts affects our water supplies. This will be a practical, how-to session on creating a rainwater harvesting system.

I will be giving a brief update on the revision of the Recommended Plant List for Northeast Texas, a list that has served as an area guide for landscape plant selection. Also on the program will be 2 talks focusing on trees. The first will be a session by Daniel Duncum, District Forester with the Texas Forest Service, on how to properly plant and care for trees, so they will get off to a great start, and then live a long, useful life. Many mistakes are made at tree planting time, and knowing the right way to establish trees will greatly reduce premature tree mortality.

The other will be a talk and demonstration by Tyson Woods of Dallas on aiding and caring for trees using a device called an airspade. Woods is the Senior Arborist with Moore Tree Care, a subsidiary of Lambert's. Woods has been very active in promoting organic techniques and has extensive experience utilizing the "airspade", uncovering well over 5,000 trees since 2001.

The East Texas Turfgrass Conference focuses on the management of turfgrass, and is of particular interest to those who are involved in the management of commercial, sports and home lawns and turf, including school districts, city parks and recreation departments, lawn and landscape managers, as well as homeowners. The Conference is Thursday, February 5, at the Texas AgriLife Research & Extension Center at Overton.

Topics include controlling turfgrass weeds and diseases,  aquatic weed control in ponds, designing and maintaining efficient irrigation systems, how to correctly identify common turfgrass problems in lawns, pesticide laws and regulations, and ends with a panel discussion where you can ask questions of the speakers. Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) pesticide license holders earn 5 CEU's (pending approval) for attending the conference.

Cost is $20 per person, payable at the door, and includes lunch. The complete program is available online at EastTexasGardening.tamu.edu - look under "Events & News" -> "Programs & News".