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    Time to harvest onions in the garden – Brownwood Bulletin - June 12, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    When trying to produce bulb onions in Texas, many gardeners get more flowers than large onions. If onion seed are planted too early or transplants and sets are used in the fall so that they grow too large before winter, the plants form flowers or bolt when temperatures rise in the spring.

    Bolting is more prevalent after a mild winter. Acting like a biological computer, the larger-than-pencil-sized onion plant adds up all of the hours of exposure to temperatures of 40 to 45. When this sum equals that total needed for flower initiation, bolting begins. This process is called vernalization.

    Fall-seeded and transplanted onions are more susceptible to bolting the following spring if warm fall temperatures promote excessive growth. Use bulbs with flower stalks early because they will not make bulbs as large as plants which have not formed seed stems.

    Also formation of the flower stem, whether removed or not, has occurred in the center of the onion bulb. When an onion which has initiated one of these flower stems is stored, the stem tissue decomposes, causing the entire onion to rot. Onions tolerate temperatures well below freezing. They may be planted from seed, from small bulbs called sets or from transplants. If sets or transplants are used, plant them 3/4 inch deep and 3 inches apart. Do not transplant onions more than 1 inch deep. When seeding onions, plant them 1/4 inch deep.

    Because onions are a cool-season vegetable, they grow best during mild temperatures. High temperatures slow vegetative (leaf) growth. The objective is to promote maximum growth in the spring when temperatures rise above 40 to 50 range but before the weather gets hot. In South and Central Texas, plant seed of short-day onions such as 1015Y (Texas A&M Supersweet), Yellow Granex (known as Vidalia), Grano 502 (yellow), White Granex or Crystal Wax (white) and Burgundy (red) directly into the garden during October or November or wait until February and set out plants.

    Newer varieties have come out as well. Seeds sown directly into the garden and covered with 1/4 inch of soil should sprout within 7 to 10 days. If planted thickly, pull the plants and use as green onions or scallions for salads or fresh eating in 8 to 10 weeks. For larger bulbs, thin the plants until they are at least 3 inches apart to allow for bulb expansion. Fertilizing onion plants is also vital to success.

    Research indicates that onion growth and yield are greatly enhanced by banding phosphorus about 2 to 3 inches below the seed at planting time. The phosphorus acts as a starter solution which invigorates the growth of young seedlings. Banding phosphorus such as super phosphate (0-20-0) 2 to 3 inches below the seed involves making a trench 3 inches deep, pouring cup of super phosphate per 10 row feet, covering with about 2 inches of soil, sowing seed and covering lightly with 1/4 to inch of soil. Once established, give onion plants additional fertilizer 19-5-9 as a side application every 4 weeks. Sidedress with ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) if soil is already high in phosphorus and potassium.

    This fertilizer encourages larger plants. Each leaf forms a ring in the onion bulb. More leaves mean more rings and larger onion bulbs. Use about cup of the fertilizer for each 10 feet of onion row. Scatter the fertilizer evenly between the rows and water. Weeds are easy to remove when they are 3 to 4 inches tall. When hoeing weeds and grass, do not work the soil too deeply for it may damage shallow roots.

    When possible always hand pull weeds to avoid root damage. Onions may be picked as green onions from the time they are pencil size until they begin to form bulbs. For dry bulb onions, let plants grow larger. Onions are mature when the top of the plant falls over. Physically breaking over the top of onion plants does not increase bulb size. When harvesting bulb onions, loosen the plants in the soil by pulling gently. Let them stay in the garden for 1 or 2 days to dry. Then remove the tops and roots and let them continue drying in baskets or boxes. Green onions can be harvested and used immediately. Green onions may be eaten fresh or can be chopped and added to salads. Bulb onions may be sliced or diced and used in many recipes or they may be dipped in batter and fried as onion rings.

    Fertilizing the lawn

    Fertilizing is not so one size fits all as we would sometimes like for it to be. Every environment is different with its own expectations, use, history, and needs. Remember that the health of your turfgrass is heavily dependent on the soil it is being grown on. Look for a custom approach that is specifically catered to your turfgrass area. Start by testing your soil. For information on soil testing, visit the Soil, Water, and Forage Testing Laboratory website: http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/ or contact the Brown County Extension Office for more information.

    Soil tests will give you a feel for some of the characteristics of your soil that are important for growing healthy plants including soil pH, soil salinity, and the relative abundance of the major nutrients your turfgrass needs to survive. While there are approximately 18 plant essential nutrients, primarily, we focus on a select few: nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium (N-P-K) are the three primary macronutrients that are available in most fertilizer products.

    The analysis or grade on the fertilizer bag is indicative of the ratio of (N, P, and K). So, a product with a grade of 15-5-10 has a 3-1-2 ratio of these nutrients. A 3-1-1 or 3-1-2 ratio fertilizer is usually recommended for home lawns in our area.

    Other elements commonly looked at by urban soil tests include calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, zinc, manganese, copper, boron, and sodium. Sodium testing is conducted to shed light on soil quality as opposed to plant nutritional needs. Every element, or nutrient, has a key part to play and balance is important. Too much or too little of any one essential nutrient can have a negative effect on your turfgrass and its overall wellbeing.

    It is possible to apply fertilizers at inappropriate times. Nitrogen, in particular, should be applied only during months of active growth. As a guide, use the first and last frost dates for your part of the state. Your first fertilizer application of the year should come approximately 4 6 weeks after the last frost date, or once the grass has been mowed at least twice. Your last fertilizer application should go out approximately 4 6 weeks before your first frost date. This will minimize winter injury and Disease risk. In our area we use March 20th as the last normal frost date.

    This year however, we had a frost in early April. November 15th is our date for average first frost in the fall. Use caution when purchasing or applying combination products such as those which combine preemergent herbicides and nitrogen fertilizers, as it is often not appropriate or beneficial to apply these types of products simultaneously in a home lawn setting. Especially where yard trees are present.

    Most people over fertilize their lawn. The recommended fertilizer application rate is 1lb of actual nitrogen per 1,000 sq feet of lawn. So, if you had a 50lb bag of 15-5-10 fertilizer it contains 7.5lbs of actual nitrogen. This one bag would cover 7500 sq feet of lawn.

    Link:
    Time to harvest onions in the garden - Brownwood Bulletin

    ‘Don’t let them win’ – Readers concerned after travellers pitch on football ground – The Mail - June 12, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    READERS are concerned aftertraining and essential maintenance was forced to come to a standstill after caravans were pitched on a football ground.

    Travellers arrived onWalneyIsland FCs mini football pitch on Tummer Hill onWednesday evening.

    After being made aware of their arrival, committee member and football manager Stephen McCullough arrived on the site and approached the group, however he claims they refused to move.

    L1A1 said: "Just carry on using it, don't let them win."If the pitch is damaged, call the Police, and have the owners of the cars and caravans prosecuted. Criminal Damage, the pitch is a valuable asset."

    Barrow Cat said: "This is ridiculous now this is the fourth site in Barrow they have been on. The council have spent thousands to evict them but they're still here. They never left any rubbish behind at ormsgill but kids tipped the bins over. "

    Julie Crompton said: "The reason they park where they like with impunity is because they don't care what the council, the law or anyone else thinks. They don't follow rules and have a total disregard for anyone or anything. If you don't want them there forget the law."

    Chase Ballantyne said: "Give them some of the achers of derelict land to use that's just sitting there then they have no reason to keep going place to place everytime they are moved on its worked in other parts of the country."

    Emma Fitzsimmons said: "Police move then its a playing field for the kids football, they seem to be able to do as they like."

    There are also concerns over the state of the pitch once the caravans have goneand that there is not enough time to complete pitch maintenance before the start of the season, including grass cutting, top soiling, seeding and aerating the pitches.

    READ MORE:Concern as travellers pitch on football ground

    Read the rest here:
    'Don't let them win' - Readers concerned after travellers pitch on football ground - The Mail

    The great rewilding: ‘How amazing Ireland would be if we were covered in our own plants?’ – The Irish Times - June 12, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    There is a low hill in Marlay Park near the childrens playground. It is a spoil mountain made of soil and rock, excavated when the M50 was built. This unromantic leftover is becoming a wild (and Wildean) place. A labyrinth has been mown through ribbon rows of close-planted native trees. At the top a sculpture of a face by Agnes Conway is set in the ground like a sleeping goddess under a green blanket. Her nose is regularly clambered on by the children who drift from the playground to the top of the mound.

    The young trees sway happily in their river of tall grass. They are vigorous thrivers: hazel, spindle, crab apple, hawthorn and blackthorn, great at greening ground left by large earth movers. Millennia ago it was glaciers doing the moving rather than dump trucks.

    Assistant foreman gardener Louise Connolly planted the labyrinth in the cold grip of winter. She does her best planting in winter. She hopes the canopy will tunnel in another few years to bring people up close and personal with a native hedgerow. In future summers the labyrinth should be heady with the honey smell of hawthorn blossom.

    Gardener Louise Connolly says Marlay Park has 'great bones' and 'all were doing is dressing it up'. Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times

    Connolly is wearing her knee pads when I arrive at Marlay House to talk to her about wilding public places. Hip trouble means she walks with a light crutch. It doesnt stop her hopping in and out of her veteran John Deere Gator with more agility than me. After 36 years with the parks service she is in her element. There is a sense of flow, like she is harnessed to a natural system. Now Im gardening the way I gardened at home, she says. Its such a joy. How could you not enjoy it?

    Practices changed in the 300-acre suburban park in south Dublin four years ago when Dn Laoghaire Rathdown County Council went chemical-free. Until then glyphosate was routinely used to kill off green areas for replanting. Summer bedding plants were brought in to replace spring bedding. These plants were very highly bred for their bling effect, says Connolly. They stayed for three months and were then removed before the soil was dug over again. It was a waste of money, time and effort.

    The big rethink started with seeding a grassy area near the courtyard with wildflowers. It had plenty of poppies and colour in the first year, but then it grew less vibrant as docks and other plants came along to help the soil recover from being rotavated. We decided were not going to dig anymore, Connolly explains. Now she mulches new planting areas with tonnes of recycled Christmas tree chip. It smothers grass and creates space for gently curving rivers of perennial plants.

    [Want to be a rewilder? Heres how]

    There are drifts of forget-me-nots, the tiny starry woodruff flowers, a line of comfrey along by the old buildings. There are wild plants in the mix, like dead nettle and burdock in a flow of gorgeous colour under a cedar that is more than a century old. There was nothing here because nothing grew here before, she says.

    Im visiting in May; the spring bulbs are dying back and summer flowers are beginning. One thing finishes and something else will come in. Eventually itll take care of itself.

    In the walled garden her gardener colleague Paul Burke has created a series of no-dig beds where he is growing perennial flowering plants for the park, along with vegetable crops. His plan is to create a meadow-like food garden, loosening rigid ideas of walled kitchen gardens.

    Connollys planting under the trees isnt wild. Its naturalistic. Theyre not wild plants but this is a park, she says.

    And people love it. Its a haven for birds and insects. Ground ivy provides cover for small mammals. Not mowing under certain trees has meant that they can seed themselves. The wild-seeded trees will be moved in dormant season to the labyrinth. Connollys colleague who opens the park early in the morning has noticed an increase in bird life. We have so many more finches than we used to.

    A bumblebee sips nectar from an Aquilegia flower in Marlay Park.Photograph: Tom Honan/The Irish Times

    Elsewhere in the park a full meadow is thronged with plantains waving their brown soldier heads in a haze of dandelion fluff. The meadow is bordered with veteran trees. Marlay has great bones, Connolly says. All were doing is dressing it up.

    A mown path allows people to walk through it. Nettles and cow parsley throng the tree line, a wild meadow in suburbia, no-mow at scale. It is cut once a year. A farmer from Tallaght will take a hay crop in the early autumn.

    Our idea of a park, like our idea of Christmas, has been heavily influenced by the Victorians. Manicured lawns, bling bedding plants and exotic specimens were ostentatious shows of wealth and colonial domination. They kept it all spick and span with loads of staff and money, says Connolly. The long-gone armies of weeders, clippers and scythers were replaced with fossil fuel-driven machines and chemical bioweapons to maintain rigid straight lines. Bourgeois big house gardens came to the burbs. In a biodiversity and climate crisis where we understand the cost of that shortcut, new practices are needed. The Victorians have had their day, Connolly says.

    Credit for the shift in how public land is being managed has to go to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, first published in 2015 by Trinity professor Jane Stout and Dr Una Fitzpatrick, senior ecologist with the National Biodiversity Data Centre, with detailed recommendations for councils, transport authorities, businesses, schools, sports clubs, farmers and individuals. Each section contains a range of suggestions for pollinator-friendly actions, from leaving grass verges along roads and motorways unmown, to creating wildflower meadows, protecting nesting habitats and reducing the use of pesticides.

    [Rewilding Irish landscape would bring big benefits for nature and humans]

    More than half of all local authorities have endorsed the plan and agreed to take specific actions. But it remains a series of recommendations rather than regulations. Until recently full-time staff dedicated to the plan in the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture have been promised rather than delivered. It is dependent on partners signing up.

    New recommendations are expected to come from the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, and the Government has promised those recommendations will inform a policy on biodiversity which will hopefully make nature-friendly land management the way in which things are done.

    The term rewilding is believed to have first been used by a Newsweek journalist writing about radical environmentalism in 1990. The idea was described as letting nature take the lead by wilderness advocate Zoltan Kun in a recent webinar with the Irish Wildlife Trust. Rewilding can be big or small: from naturally regenerating thousands of hectares by fencing or introducing wolves, to putting the mower away so suburban soil can find its mojo.

    It can be as small as a window box with local soil and a nettle and a thistle planted in it to allow us to watch the spidery creatures, caterpillars and tiny hovering insects that need unloved plants for a home.

    The last idea is from garden designer Mary Reynolds. She designs arks, or Acts of Regenerative Kindness, rather than gardens now. She is convinced that the future will be ark-shaped with nature at the prow.

    Mary Reynolds with her dog Lucky. Photograph: Claire Leadbitter

    Ideas of control are hard to relinquish. Ireland has a history of locking up wildness and throwing away the key. Weedy unkempt places have associations of poverty. Letting the land go was a visible sign of defeat or grief for many people, the loss of loved ones through bereavement or emigration. Prosperity has been drawn on the landscape with ripped-out hedgerows and a blank green carpet of heavily-fertilised rye grass. We need a new story about wild places.

    Its 20 years since Reynolds won a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show, becoming the youngest woman ever to win. Her success sent a dart of hope through environmentalists hearts that the days of laurel hedges and scalped lawns were numbered. Woolly, wavey gardens full of native plants would be planted with pride.

    Reynolds was taken aback by the emotion that greeted her garden, a stone archway opening to a path with four Druid thrones around a fire bowl over a pond with more than 500 native plants. People were moved to tears.

    It was something they didnt know that they had lost until they saw it kind of honoured, she explains. One old lady she was one of the lost Irish had come to work as a cleaner aged 17 and was then in her 80s started crying her eyes out. She had never managed to get back to Ireland and she knew she was never going to get back but now she felt she had been back.

    In 2018 Reynolds founded We Are The Ark, to guide people to return gardens to nature to combat biodiversity loss. Her website gives a simple how-to for anyone who wants to build a natural haven which will sustain itself. A key step is to put up a sign This is an ark to explain what some may see as a messy place.

    Reynolds mission is to persuade people of our innate ability to connect with nature, with land and with creatures. We seem to think we are completely separate.

    I know that Id be considered a complete lunatic in many ways but Im very sure that the future is what I do. If you want to save the planet you have to start with your own patch we have to stop imposing our view of what should be in the ground on top of the earth. We have to let her decide.

    Creating an ark is dependent on how much damage the soil has undergone. It definitely can need a lot of help. Sometimes the damage is so profound that we have to restore it as much as we can.

    Central to the idea is providing as many different layers of habitat as you can within the space you have. In arking, as Reynolds call it, humans step in to be the creatures like wolves and deer that balance a habitat. Larger spaces can accommodate multiple habitats: scrubby areas where brambles are allowed to spread into native thorny thickets. A pond can be a bowl of water with some oxygenating plants in it. Dead hedges, piles of logs can provide places of sanctuary. Holes in boundaries between gardens, fences replaced with hedgerows.

    How amazing Ireland would be if we were covered in our own plants, if we didnt decide to import things that were pretty? Reynolds asks. How do we think we always need to be like someone else?

    [How the baron of Dunsany carried out an ambitious rewilding project in Meath]

    The gardening industry has made a grab for rewilding trends with wildflower seed mixes, packets showing a riot of colour, most of which are not native plants. If we keep doing what garden centres tell us to do, those big showy flowers, theyre like big fat signs for McDonalds, says Reynolds. The insects flock to them, so the more insignificant but far more vital native plants fail to find space or pollinators. We are prettifying ourselves to extinction.

    We need our hearts open to include every little wild weed. Leave spaces to find their way, is her advice. Docks will come up, thistles will come up. Nature is very intelligent and knows how to heal itself.

    If your soil seedbank is depleted and you have to sow, new seeds should be native grown and wild, or better still, gathered from your neighbourhood in late summer and autumn. A useful intervention can be to scrape some bare soil in a lawn and sow yellow rattle seeds, Reynolds says. Yellow rattle roots strangle grass roots and spread throughout a field or lawn, making space for wild seeds to germinate and grow.

    Reynolds has a new book coming out in October called We Are the Ark. Over the next four years she will be working on a flagship ark in the grounds of Westport House in Co Mayo. Everything will be sourced from within 16km. We will be holding nature in a new light. Its the god of everything we are. Were screwed without our home, she says. I dont want to go and live with Elon Musk on Mars.

    Twenty years on she cant bear the Chelsea Flower Show now. Its part of an industry that has become a juggernaut, paving gardens with Chinese granite and stone from India. Invasive plants and non-native plants are taking away the food supply of our fellow creatures.

    This year Chelseas best-in-show garden was an echo of Reynolds win, with the award going to a garden sponsored by Rewilding Britain. Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt recreated a beaver dam, using wild plants, grasses and native trees. Like a deliberately tousled hairstyle, it looked like a quiet green corner of countryside undisturbed by people or other large animals.

    In the two decades since Reynolds win, the plastic grass industry has marched across multiple gardens. You never have to force this [ark creation] on anyone, she says. The freedom to choose it is part of the message. And her take on plastic grass? Eventually some brave politician will step in and make that illegal.

    Irish Wildlife Trust campaign officer Pdraic Fogarty: 'Should we be keeping the Phoenix Park absolutely identical to what it was in the 1700s?'

    In the middle of writing this piece I opened Clarissa Pinkola Ests book Women who Run with The Wolves, to one of the many pages I dog-earred while reading it. When we think of reclamation it may bring to mind bulldozers or carpenters, the restoration of an old structure, and that is the modern usage of the word. However, the older meaning is this: The word reclamation is derived from the old French reclaimer, meaning to call back the hawk which has been let fly. Yes, to cause something of the wild to return when it is called.

    Call it reclamation or rewilding, the trend is a very positive one, ecologist and environmental scientist Pdraic Fogarty of the Irish Wildlife Trust says. It has enormous potential. Ironically one of the barriers to it is that its too cheap and too easy. Nature just needs some time and space. This goes against our need for immediate results.

    Fogarty has a cherry tree in his garden that found its way there. But outside his house this morning, three tractors have been cutting acres of grass in the Dublin estate where he lives, obliterating any chance of another bird-sown cherry seed making it to treedom. We need to reverse the mentality around mowing, and mow only the places where people want to play football or picnic, he says.

    The National Pollinator Plan has done wonders for making people look at things differently, Fogarty says. Public spaces offer an institutional opportunity to make spaces where trees are allowed just to grow themselves. Deer fencing in the Phoenix Park would allow areas to become forests.

    Theyre still planting non-native trees in the Phoenix Park, Fogarty says. Its his nearest park. They say the Mediterranean oaks are being planted to replace veteran trees as part of a managed landscape, he says. But, should we be keeping the park absolutely identical to what it was in the 1700s?

    We talk on the day that the EU has announced a plan to plant three billion trees. As part of Project Woodland, the Irish Wildlife Trust has been consulting on the next forest strategy for Ireland, due to be published soon. The key question, Fogarty says, is how we are going to meet some of the targets. Natural regeneration where trees seed themselves could help to re-establish native woodlands with a power and speed unmatchable by our efforts. The idea that we need to plant three billion trees is so human-centric. What we need to do is establish forests, large areas of forest and a lot of that needs to be undisturbed.

    Cyclists enjoy the wildflowers along the Dodder Walk in Rathfarnham, Co Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

    In rural areas it is not as simple as doing nothing to allow land to rewild. On peat lands we need to block drains. There is a need to fence farm animals out of areas and cull deer populations. We are making some progress. The new CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) is allowing farmers to rewild 30 per cent of land, but this is only applicable to farmers who have fields. Commonage areas, which may have much more potential, are not part of this plan.

    There are some rewilding projects that provide more; not just biodiversity benefits but also powerful carbon sequestration. Healthy bogs, particularly healthy raised bogs, will take carbon out of the air forever, compared to forests which store carbon for 100 years.

    Fogarty believes the culture war over forest projects is overstated. In the surveys and public consultations there has been huge public support for forests. What people hate are the commercial plantations, cliff faces of conifers clear-felled to leave devastated ecosystems in their wake.

    Fogartys advice to anyone wanting to wild their garden is to make space for wildlife and enjoy what arrives. You dont have to be an absolutist. He has a resident family of sparrows and a crowd of starlings as regular visitors. Ants live under the elder that seeded itself. They all feel a little like part of the family.

    Rewilding has been a really positive story. People can see with their own eyes, Fogarty says. And what they see is the power of an intelligent system.

    Nature is healing became a consoling idea of the early days of the pandemic, when we marvelled at crystal clear waters in Venice or foxes on deserted city streets. The idea blossomed, and then quickly withered into a jokey meme. But the experience left its mark, and leaves us more open to ideas of rewilding public spaces than we have been for generations. We have the solutions, Fogarty says. One of them is the leap of thinking about how to align with natural forces, to see and believe Im part of this system. Now I dont have to control it or dominate it.

    See the original post:
    The great rewilding: 'How amazing Ireland would be if we were covered in our own plants?' - The Irish Times

    TxDOT Project Updates for the Week of June 13, 2022 – Texas Department of Transportation - June 12, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Anderson CountyPalestine Maintenance crews will be on FM 860 widening the pavement. Traffic will be controlled by flaggers and a pilot car.

    Anderson County construction projects updates:

    US 79 Super 2 Project

    The contractor is scheduled to continue work on roadway elements. The speed limit has been reduced to 60 mph throughout the project limits. Motorists should use caution when traveling through the project and expect lane closures and delays. Project consists of widening for a Super 2, including sub-grade work, surface treatment, base and surface hot mix asphalt, widening structures, bridge rail, MBGF, signage and permanent striping.

    SH 155 Overlay Project

    The contractor is scheduled to work on driveways and drainage structures on SH 155 in Anderson County. The speed limit has been reduced to 60 mph throughout the project limits. Motorists should use caution when traveling through the project and expect lane closures and delays. It consists of OCST, PFC surface, shoulder texturing, edge treatment and pavement markings.

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    Cherokee CountyJacksonville crews will be on US 79 near New Summerfield cleaning ditches. Expect daytime lane closures.

    Rusk crews will be on FM 1247 for base repairs. Expect daytime lane closures.

    Cherokee County construction projects updates:

    SH 204 Super-2 Widening Project

    No work is scheduled this week. The project adds passing lanes and incorporates safety upgrades.

    US 84 Widening

    The contractor is scheduled to replace bridge rail. Lane closures will be in place. Expect delays on this corridor when construction is in progress. The project will widen and resurface the roadway, along with adding safety upgrades.

    FM 22 Safety Widening and Bridge Replacement Project

    The contractor is scheduled to continue corrective work and construction on the bridge at Turnpike Creek. Flaggers will be present during construction hours. Expect daily lane closures when work is being done. The bridge will be closed during construction. The project will widen the existing roadway, replace three bridges and incorporate safety upgrades.

    SH 21 Resurfacing Project

    The contractor is scheduled to continue road work construction on driveway upgrades and structure extensions. No lane closures are expected. The project will consist of pavement resurfacing.

    US 69 Signals in Jacksonville

    The contractor will continue work along US 69 from US 175 to Canada. Traffic control will consist of occasional lane closures and work outside of the roadway when the work is in progress (Monday-Thursdays, weather permitting). This is a safety project to update existing signals and add pedestrian signals, crosswalks, and curb ramps.

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    Gregg CountyLongview Maintenance will start mill and inlay with Special Crews on FM 2204 from US 259 Bypass to FM 2276. They will then move to FM 2012 from SH 31 to the Rusk County line.

    Gregg County construction projects updates:

    Spur 63/McCann Road Bridge Project

    This project is part of the City of Longview Guthrie Creek Trail project. It will consist of building a bridge over Guthrie Creek to allow bicyclist and pedestrians to travel under Spur 63. The traffic will be reduced to two lanes, one northbound lane and one south bound lane to allow the contractor to build half of the bridge. Traffic will be switched later to allow completion of the bridge construction. Expect delays.

    FM 2206/Harrison Road

    This project consists of widening a two-lane road to four lanes with a center turn lane. This includes drainage structures, new bridge, flexible base, hot mix and pavement markings. Contractor will be extending culverts and constructing detours. There will be daytime lane closures. Expect delays.

    FM 2206/Harrison Road

    This project consists of widening a two-lane road to four lanes with a center turn lane. This includes drainage structures, flexible base, curb and gutter, sidewalks, hot mix and pavement markings. Contractor will be extending culverts and constructing detours. There will be daytime lane closures. Expect delays.

    Pentecost Rd. Bridge Replacement

    The project consists of replacing the bridge structure on Big Head Creek. Pentecost Road will be closed to through traffic. Only local traffic will be allowed. Through traffic needs to select an alternate route. Estimated completion is August of 2022.

    FM 1249 - Kilgore

    There is no work scheduled this week. The project consists of milling existing hot mix asphalt and placing new hot mix asphalt, new striping and minor drainage structure work. There will be daytime lane closures. Expect delays. Estimated completion is August 2022.

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    Henderson CountyAthens maintenance is scheduled to mill and inlay on SH 84 between SH 19 and Loop 256. Expect lane closures with flaggers controlling traffic. Crews are also scheduled to repair base failures and blade hot mix on SH 274 between SH 334 and the Kaufman County line. Expect lane closures with flaggers controlling traffic.

    Henderson County construction projects updates:

    SH 198 Bridge Project

    The contractor is scheduled to work on the new northbound bridge and roadway elements. Motorists should be prepared for lane closures and delays. The speed limit has been reduced to 50 mph throughout the project. The project consists of the construction of replacing bridges, approaches, grading, structures, asphalt concrete pavement (ACP) base, ACP surface, retaining walls, curb & gutter, MBGF, and pavement markings.

    BUS 175 Safety Improvement Project

    The contractor is scheduled to work on traffic signal supports on BUS 175. Motorists should be prepared for lane closures and delays. The project includes traffic signals, curb ramps and pavement markings.

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    Rusk CountyRusk County crews will be overlaying on FM 2867. Expect lane closures with flaggers controlling traffic.

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    Smith CountyTyler Maintenance will have a base failure crew on FM 15. Flaggers will control traffic. A herbicide unit will also be in various locations throughout Smith County.

    Also, this week, seal coat operations will continue in Smith County at these locations:

    Monday, June 13: Crews will begin on SH 110N at Loop 49 and will head north, stopping just south of IH 20.

    Tuesday, June 14: Crews will move to FM 344 at SH 110.

    Wednesday, June 15 to Friday, June 17: Crews will move to Troup to seal coat FM 346, SH 135 and SH 110.

    Smith County construction projects updates:

    Sidewalks at various locations in Smith County

    No work is scheduled this week. The project is adding sidewalks along SH 64W in Tyler, SH 110W, and SH 135N in Troup.

    FM 344, etc., Safety Improvements

    No work is scheduled this week. The project consists of improving drainage, culvert work, and guardrail upgrades.

    SH 155 Resurfacing Project

    The contractor is scheduled to continue the mill and inlay on the main lanes. Anticipate lane closures while work is in progress. When in progress, hours will be from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sunday through Thursday nights. Expect delays. The project will resurface the roadway, upgrade drainage structures, and repair bridge joints.

    SH 64 Bridge Maintenance

    The contractor is awaiting punch list. When work is in progress, hours will be 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lane closures will be in place when working on the metal beam guard fence and retrofit rail. The project consists of bridge maintenance and repair.

    Tyler State Park Bridge and Resurfacing Project

    The contractor is scheduled to continue ROW prep. The project will consist of bridge and pavement resurfacing.

    SH 110 & FM 346 Landscape Project

    No work is scheduled this week. The project consists of landscape development.

    Whittle Street, CR 2110 and CR 289 Bridge Replacement Project

    No work is scheduled on Whittle Street at West Mud Creek Tributary. The project replaces the existing bridge with a new structure.

    The contractor is scheduled to continue construction on the CR 2110 bridge at Kickapoo Creek. The road is closed to through traffic. The project replaces the existing bridge with a new structure.

    No work is scheduled this week on the CR 289 bridge at Prairie Creek. The road is closed to through traffic. The project replaces the existing bridge with a new structure. The contractor will complete one bridge at a time. Weather permitting, the bridge is scheduled to be completed at the end of May.

    IH 20 Mill and Inlay

    The contractor is scheduled to continue base repairs on the westbound outside lane. Nightly lane closures will be in place. Work will be done at night, Sundays from 9 PM to 5 AM and Monday-Thursday 8 PM to 5 AM. Expect delays on this corridor when construction is in progress. Project consists of an overlay with TBPFC surface, ACP surface, planning, shoulder texturing and pavement markings.

    SH 135 Bridge Replacements

    No work is scheduled this week. The project is currently under time suspension due to migrating birds nesting under the bridges. The project consists of the replacement of the bridge at Mud Creek and Mud Creek Relief.

    US 271 Rehab, Turn Lanes, and Pavement Overlay

    Crews will be performing paving rehab operations on the NB side. The NB outside lane will be permanently closed with signs and channelizing devices for the affected section. Traffic control will be managed by flaggers as needed. The project consists of paving, structures, MBGF, and pavement markings from I-20 north to the Gregg County line. The portion from I-20 to FM 16 also includes turn lanes and pavement rehabilitation.

    IH 20 at Barber Road

    This project consists of widening on ramps and exit ramps, culverts, drainage upgrades, new metal beam guard fence and bridge rails on the Barber Road overpass, and asphalt overlay. No work this week on this project.

    Safety Improvement Project (Van Zandt, Anderson, Smith and Henderson County)

    The contractor is scheduled to continue work on driveways and drainage structures on FM 850 in Smith County. Motorists should be prepared for lane closures and delays. The project includes grading, structure work, guard rail replacement and bridge rail upgrades.

    ---------------------------------------

    Van Zandt CountyMaintenance crews are scheduled to perform base work on FM 859 between IH 20 and US 80. Expect lane closures with flaggers controlling traffic.

    Van Zandt County construction projects updates:

    I-20 MBGF Improvements (Van Zandt, Smith, and Gregg counties)

    Crews will be addressing punch list items in Smith and Gregg County (eastbound and westbound). Lane closures will be in effect nightly and will be managed by message boards, channelizing devices and law enforcement officers. Seeding will be performed daily using a mobile operation managed by LEOs and TMAs. This project is to construct safety improvements consisting of upgrading metal beam guard fence and mow strip.

    SH 19 Super Two Widening & Overlay

    Crews will be performing roadway widening operations northbound. Traffic control will consist of a northbound shoulder closure managed by channelizing devices. The project consists of Super 2 work including grading, base repair, treated subgrade, flex base, OCST, PFC surface, structures, signs and pavement markings.

    CR 2918, etc. Bridge Replacements

    Crews will be grading and paving at CR 2708 and addressing punch list items on CR 2918. CR 2708 will be closed at the bridge for the remainder of construction. CR 2319 and CR 2918 are open to traffic and in the punch-list phase. Minimal impact to the traveling public is anticipated. The project consists of removing and replacing four bridges.

    ----------------------------------------

    Wood CountyMaintenance crews are scheduled to overlay on SH 11 starting at the Camp County line heading west towards Winnsboro. Expect lane closures with flaggers and a pilot vehicle controlling traffic.

    Wood County construction projects updates:

    SH 37 Road Widening and PFC Overlay

    Crews will be performing roadway widening operations on the northbound side. Traffic control will consist of daily shoulder closures managed by flaggers and a pilot car. The project consists of base repair, level-up, spray paver, permeable friction course surface, structures, bridge rail, metal beam guard fence, and pavement markings.

    FM 2088, etc. MBGF Improvements in Wood County

    Crews will be replacing MBGF on FM 17 at three Lake Fork bridges and on FM 2088. Traffic control will consist of daily lane closures managed with flaggers. The project is for bridge maintenance consisting of MBGF and bridge retrofit rail.

    ----------------------------------------

    I-20 Total Maintenance Contract

    See original here:
    TxDOT Project Updates for the Week of June 13, 2022 - Texas Department of Transportation

    Henry Walsh: The world is in for a shock with food price hikes – Farming Independent - June 12, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    This time last year I wrote about the rapidly increasing world population, noting that not a single EU policy was concerned with food security or availability.

    his week, EU Agricultural Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski visited Dublin for the World Potato Conference and attended a meeting of the IFA national executive.

    After months of denial by both him and other leaders that the invasion of Ukraine would impact on food availability in Europe, he has finally come out and said food security is now a top priority for the EU.

    The world has been walking a food security tightrope for several years. Global commerce had become very lean, very internationalised and very efficient.

    But the danger with a tightrope is that the smallest thing can throw you off. Remember, a few years back, just one boat blocked the most important shipping route in the world, the Suez Canal.

    Now, global transport is still unreliable and multiple times the cost. I fear that the war in Ukraine has fundamentally altered the economics of EU food production for the future.

    An abundance of internationally traded cheap grain was the cornerstone on which affordable food was built.

    Corn is an incredible feed that can be eaten by humans in its natural form as cereals or bread or it can be fed to produce chicken, pork, beef or milk.

    Up until very recently it traded at the same price as it did in the 1970s. This has now changed dramatically, due to a sharp increase in the cost of production which is likely to lead to a drop in production and a scenario not seen in generations, where demand is greater than supply.

    The developed world, particularly European citizens, are in for a shock with the rate of food inflation that is about to hit them a figure of 8pc is being bandied about.

    Yet many of the major costs to produce food fertiliser, feed and oil are up well over 100pc.

    In the past, the powerful retailers have simply refused to give a price increase to suppliers.

    The retailers will continue to squeeze suppliers, particularly own-brand suppliers, who have signed contracts. They will do this even if the producers go broke, because thats what the big retailers have been doing for decades, while legislators and consumer watchdogs turned a blind eye, so long as they continued to supply food as cheaply as possible.

    This year the EU Ag Commissioner will get his wish with at least a 20pc drop in fertiliser usage due to the exorbitant cost (and to a lesser extent availability), but this could become a nightmare for consumers when production drops and demand continues to increase.

    Last week I had a long chat with a dairy farmer who has been producing organic milk for over 20 years.

    He is locked in to a 12-month fixed-milk-price contract and the buyer was not willing to renegotiate because the retailer was not interested in his yarn about increased costs.

    The farmer told me the price of organic grain had rocketed to 700/t. We are in uncharted territory

    And remember you and I are consumers, the same as everyone else in Europe. The difference is we are also food producers.

    Back on the farm we are slightly tight for grass after an excellent spell that allowed us to take surplus bales and reseed 5pc of the MP, with another 4pc sprayed today for re-seeding next week.

    This year in our efforts to establish clover we are sowing 2kg+ of clover seed per acre and grazing the new re-seed every time it has a cover of 800.

    Milk output has dropped a little to 23.5L at 4.35 fat and 3.8 protein or 1.97kg/ms.

    We increased the meal to 3kg this week and 4kg of zero grazing for five days to help support farm cover currently 120 per cow.

    All cows have been AId and now we are hoping for a good conception rate.

    Henry and Patricia Walsh farm in Oranmore, Co Galway along with their son Enda and neighbour and outfarm owner John Moran

    Read more:
    Henry Walsh: The world is in for a shock with food price hikes - Farming Independent

    Dairy Farmers of Manitoba commits up to $100,000 for Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association – Steinbachonline.com – SteinbachOnline.com - June 12, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Courtesy MFGA

    Dairy Farmers of Manitoba (DFM)is committing up to $100,000 for Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association (MFGA)over two years to help farmer-led efforts and projects focused on soil, water, and grass.

    A new funding arrangement will see Dairy Farmers of Manitoba (DFM) commit up to $100,000 for MFGA over the next two years via corporate and project support, kicking off with support of the MFGA Green Gold Program, which is designed to guide the optimum cut of alfalfa based on highest relative feed value.

    This is an incredible and very unique partnership, said Duncan Morrison, MFGA executive director. We are humbled and grateful to have the support of DFM. The great thing is we have structured the partnership as a win-win for both organizations. We know that dairy farmers are keen to work with the soils, grasses and natural areas on their farms to help reach the net zero carbon pledge made by Dairy Farmers of Canada. We believe MFGAs producer network, peer to peer interactions and project involvement underway and ahead are perfect to help DFM reach its goal.

    Dairy Farmers of Manitoba is a long-time supporter of the MFGA Green Gold Program.By working with MFGA on future projects around soil, grasslands, and water management, we are creating more opportunities for dairy farmers to learn and participate in projects that support these best management practices, said DFM chair David Wiens. This is also a great opportunity to kick off our partnership with MFGA's Green Gold Program, in which we have been long time partners and supporters.

    On top of the corporate support, MFGA will look for case by case opportunities to promote and deliver programming, research, and knowledge transfer to dairy farmers (extension services) with DFM. Targeted and pitched projects will focus on water, grass, soil, carbon, and must fit with ongoing or new partnership opportunities around on-farm and applied research and projects with research potentially aimed at: BMP development, farmer profitability, environmental (soil health, carbon sequestration, etc.), water models, soil mapping and carbon models.We approached DFM with a proposal that centered on our shared interests, long and trusted history and our respective organizational ambitions, added Morrison. There is a lot of work ahead for MFGA to realize the absolute maximum from this partnership and we are up to the task. We all want healthy soils, lands and waters and in many cases, farmers are already doing that great work individually. This partnership is going to bring us all together on key fronts, allow us to work more strategically and seamlessly and celebrate our successes together.

    See the rest here:
    Dairy Farmers of Manitoba commits up to $100,000 for Manitoba Forage and Grassland Association - Steinbachonline.com - SteinbachOnline.com

    Ways of seeding: the designer changing the way we look at gardening – The Guardian - January 25, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Overseeing the gardens of a city museum is a somewhat atypical post in the gardening world, but a fantastic one (as head gardener at Londons Garden Museum, I should know). Horticulture is combined with history, education and storytelling, which inform plant choices, design and presentation. Errol Fernandes, head of horticulture at south Londons Horniman Museum and Gardens, which houses the collection of the 19th-century tea trader Frederick John Horniman says conversations with visitors regularly stray beyond gardening into the realms of art, collections and curation.

    Fernandes, who took on the role last spring, oversees 16 acres of tropical, medicinal and rockery plantings, mature trees and large areas of parkland grass. He draws inspiration not only from his horticultural studies and experience, but a background in art and curation (he initially studied fine art, painting and photography). A painters eye, therefore, informs his approach to planting and garden maintenance.

    We meet on a gloriously bright, late-autumn morning in the museums award-winning Grasslands Garden, designed by plantsman and Olympic Park landscape designer James Hitchmough to reflect North American and South African native prairies. Fernandes is busy editing the garden in preparation for winter. Traditionally, perennials are cut back entirely to ground level in autumn, or in early spring ahead of new shoots. However, Fernandes argues that, with considered editing, these gardens can be enjoyed throughout the winter.

    Though we keep as much in place for wildlife as possible, were also cutting away bits that are letting down the picture, he says, indicating a section recently worked on: an array of shimmering ornamental grasses and perennials that have lignified (grown woody), glowing gold, silver and maroon-pink. In the past, these beds were left until February, but were recognising that there is a balance between naturalistic planting looking intended and looking unkempt. I think its really important to step back and observe.

    Describing his approach to composition, Fernandes uses terms more common in photography and painting: apical points, triangular repetition, aspiring towards a sense of balance. Were all very used to pointing our camera at things and I encourage my team to do the same to imagine the viewfinder and assess whats spoiling that image. Has a plant collapsed? Is there something theres too much of? You want the plants to be able to jostle together but not outcompete each other, so close attention to what is happening on the ground is important, too.

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    He sees the autumn into winter period as a time of adjustments, where he might chop back a plant if its flopping too much and let others die back gradually to prolong interest. I think the contemporary horticulturist looks at structure and form in a different way. We are looking at seed heads, sepia tones. We often talk about how a plant dies does it die gracefully? Thats really important here.

    In the Grassland Garden, tall seeding plumes of goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) and wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium) contrast with the darker tones of echinacea and false indigo (Baptisia australis); the sharp outline of the tall sea holly (Eryngium yuccifolium) sits against feathery bluestem grass (Schizachyrium scoparium) all perennials with fantastic winter attributes. Its important to have species that provide contrast, says Fernandes, and a good range of textures, too, from soft to rigid and spiky.

    Before turning to professional gardening, Fernandes worked in fashion editorial then in outreach roles at the Tate and the V&A, before doing an MA in art psychotherapy. Being introduced to horticultural therapy inspired him to retrain as a gardener, studying at Capel Manor College in Enfield, on the edge of north London.

    The course offered Fernandes a sense of belonging: It felt like, finally, this was where I needed to be. This is what my passion is. After graduating, however, he was surprised at how hard it was to secure a horticultural traineeship. I attended interview after interview. Many national, leading horticultural institutions repeatedly fed back that it had been between me and an equally strong candidate; my college tutor was scratching his head saying: Why arent they giving it to you? It just felt odd that it was such a struggle.

    He eventually landed a traineeship at the esteemed Chelsea Physic Garden and went on to work at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath before joining the Horniman. However, his experiences have led him to question a lack of diversity in horticulture (he is a British-born Asian of British immigrant parents from Africa). Fernandes grew up with an interest in it his mother was a florist. But I couldnt imagine myself in that profession; I didnt see anybody like me a person of colour within it.

    This is a complex issue, he says, and deeply rooted. My mum used to take us to various houses and gardens, and sometimes wed get quite a frosty reception. We knew what it was about, though my mum tried to shield us. I think the industry, and society as a whole, often find it difficult to imagine people from diverse backgrounds working in horticulture, particularly in higher-level positions. In a strange way Ive had to fight through my own bias to be here.

    But there are encouraging signs, he says. He recently met three young students of African and Afro-Caribbean descent at a Horniman gardening study day: I asked each of them about their journey into horticulture. It felt like a profound shift. Fernandess enthusiasm for making horticulture more inclusive and diverse is well suited to the Horniman, which is endeavouring to engage new audiences within its south London community.

    Right now, his creative energy is turning to fresh projects in the garden plans for 2022 include planting a micro-forest to provide a green buffer between the gardens and the busy, polluting South Circular road; and an educational border filled with drought-tolerant plants. Reducing mowing to increase biodiversity is a priority roughly an acre of lawn is given over to long grass and mown paths as is a more sustainable approach to planting, with plans to replace the traditional annual bedding in the historic Sunken Garden with longer-term schemes.

    Bedding is so wasteful, he says. The constant intervention that it requires has a negative effect on the health of the soil. So weve been thinking more carefully about what we plant now, including more perennial bulbs tulips, narcissus and hyacinth that can stay in the ground for two to three years.

    Fernandes is also keen to deepen the link with the museums internal displays. Its extensive musical instrument collection is reflected through plantings such as bottle gourd (from which percussion instruments are made) and Arundo donax (used for woodwind reeds). Fernandes is now looking to interpret the taxidermy bird collection, with illustrative, informative new planting.

    Gardening must continue to address issues such as sustainability and waste, and the challenge of our changing climate. But artistic vision can inspire change, too: there seems to be an increasing crossover between art and gardening, championed in recent years by galleries such as the Hepworth in Wakefield and Hauser & Wirth in Somerset (and before that Derek Jarmans Prospect Cottage in Kent). For me, gardening is an artistic, creative process, says Fernandes. I entered into it for love, and then passion got ignited.

    See original here:
    Ways of seeding: the designer changing the way we look at gardening - The Guardian

    The players who could stop Ashleigh Barty from reaching the womens final – The Age - January 25, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    This would be a fascinating final-four showdown for Barty against another Roland Garros champion, last years victor Barbora Krejcikova. Theres a little bit of a pattern here Krejcikova, fresh off her Paris heroics, was one of the players the world No.1 beat at Wimbledon a few weeks later as Barty went on to accomplish a childhood dream by triumphing on the London grass. The right-handed Krejcikova has been making strong inroads in the womens game in recent times, her season-ending world No.5 coming off a ranking of 65 one year earlier.

    MADISON KEYSAGE: 26COUNTRY: United StatesRANKING: 51SEEDING: n/aHEAD TO HEAD: Barty 2, Keys 1

    Madison Keys used her big-hitting game to put the heat on Paula Badosa in the fourth round.Credit:Getty Images

    This, too, would be a semi-final clash with plenty of appeal as American Keys has a wealth of experience at the majors that belies her current ranking. An Australian Open semi-finalist seven years ago, Keys has also gone deep at Roland Garros (2018 semi-finals), Wimbledon (2015 quarter-final) and on home turf at the US Open (2017 finalist). In some ways, of the three different players who could attempt to stop Barty from reaching Saturday nights final, Keys could be the most dangerous.

    One of the following players will have the world No.1 in their sights if she wins through to Saturday nights title showdown.

    DANIELLE COLLINSAGE: 28COUNTRY: United StatesRANKING: 30SEED: 27HEAD TO HEAD: Barty 3, Collins 1Made the semi-final of the Australian Open in 2019 and is a ferocious competitor who claimed titles on Italian clay and American hard courts last year. Her trainer and partner is Tom Couch, the son of the late AFL Brownlow Medallist and Geelong champion Paul Couch. Beat Elise Mertens in three sets on Monday to make the quarters.

    ALIZE CORNETAGE: 32COUNTRY: FranceRANKING: 61SEED: N/AHEAD TO HEAD: Barty 1, Cornet 1.The veteran showed her resilience with a come-from-behind win over 29th seed Tamara Zidansek in scorching heat to make the fourth round, and provided one of the upsets of the Open when she toppled dual grand slam winner Simona Halep on Monday.

    IGA SWIATEKCOUNTRY: PolandAGE: 20RANKING: 9SEED: 7HEAD TO HEAD: Barty 2, Swiatek 0The 2020 French Open champion plays an aggressive style of tennis and hadnt dropped a set leading into the fourth round clash with Sorana Cirstea. Cirstea took the first set of their clash on Monday night but Swiatek fought back to take the victory and keep her title hopes alive.

    KAIA KANEPICOUNTRY: EstoniaAGE: 36RANKING: 115SEED: N/AHEAD TO HEAD: Barty 1, Kanepi 0The Estonian veteran knocked out Australian wildcard Madison Inglis in the third round. She backed that up with a victory over Aryna Sabalenka on Monday night. Sabalenka, the world No.2, has been battling a dreadful case of the serving yips recently and is yet to make a grand slam final. But a fascinating rivalry had developed between Sabalenka and Barty and Kanepis upset win takes the Belarusian off the board.

    Read this article:
    The players who could stop Ashleigh Barty from reaching the womens final - The Age

    Ask an expert: There may be help for this maple with possible root rot – OregonLive - January 25, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Gardening season has been put to bed for winter, but you may still have questions. For answers, turn to Ask an Expert, an online question-and-answer tool from Oregon State Universitys Extension Service. OSU Extension faculty and Master Gardeners reply to queries within two business days, usually less. To ask a question, simply go to the OSU Extension website, type it in, and include the county where you live. Here are some questions asked by other gardeners. Whats yours?

    Q: We have a previously very healthy hybrid maple (Acer saccharinum x rubrum) that appears to have developed a black weep and crack on the trunk.

    We planted it in 2009 as a balled-and-burlaped nursery stock tree, and it has thrived until a year ago. (The trunk went from 2-inch diameter to about 15-inch diameter in 12 years.)

    The weep developed after we had a professional pruning a little over a year ago. From what I can find on the internet (photos), it appears to be phytophthora fungal infection.

    Is it possible to restore the trees health, or will the rot result in a potentially structurally unsafe tree over time? What should we look for in an arborist? I know you probably cannot point us to specific companies, but if you can give us a tip, thatd be really helpful. Multnomah County

    A: Argh, that doesnt look good. But it may not be the end of the tree. Phytophthora is probably a pretty good guess, but there are several other possibilities. Here is a link to the PNW Plant Disease Management Handbook re: maple and phytophthora diseases.

    This includes both cultural and chemical solutions, although chemical methods are generally protectants, there are phosphonate fungicides that appear to slow the phyphthora down.

    First you may want to look at the drainage situation around the tree. Does it appear compacted and perhaps there is standing water a lot of the time? This can facilitate phytophthora. Is there any way to improve the drainage issue if you think it may be a problem?

    Regarding arborists, you may want to try a consulting arborist one that can do diagnosis and recommend treatments, but wont be the one to do the treatments, so they are not likely to recommend things that arent absolutely needed.

    Here is the PNW ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) website with a find an arborist page, with a directory.

    In the directory, the arborists will note whether they are consulting arborists or not. Dave Shaw, OSU Extension forestry specialist

    Apple treeOSU Extension Service

    Q: I just noticed this as I started pruning my Liberty apple tree. What is it and how should I deal with it? The entire branch is nonproductive perhaps I should cut it back to the trunk?

    A: This is likely apple anthracnose canker. Infection generally occurs during fall rains and first appears as a small, circular red spot on the bark; new cankers are most visible when the bark is moist. The discoloration extends into the tissue as far as the sapwood, which contains the functioning vascular tissue.

    Disease management relies heavily on pruning out the cankers to remove the inoculum source. Stems or trees that are heavily infected with cankers should be removed from the orchard and burned. The mainstay of apple canker control is pruning out the cankers. If the canker pathogen is a fungus, prune off the cankers in early summer. After that, spray the area with a Bordeaux mixture or approved fixed copper materials. Since fungal cankers only attack apple trees suffering from drought or other cultural stress, you may be able to prevent these cankers by taking excellent care of the trees. Chris Rusch, OSU Extension Master Gardener

    How is this conifer doing?OSU Extension Service

    Q: Im not sure what the correct name is of this conifer. It looks nice on the outside, but underneath there is a lot of dry leaves. Last year it was the same. Is that normal? Should I do anything? Multnomah County

    A: Actually, the conifer is in excellent condition. And thats in spite of the direct heat from it receives from both the west and the south; the limited rooting area; and the heat reflected from paving on two sides! The dense growth is simply shading out some of the interior growth, a normal occurrence. Such shade is not a problem and that sort of dead growth may be removed whenever it is seen, The only thing you need to do is to remove each brown branch at its source, but dont cut the brown off in such a way that leafless stubs remain. With conifers, bare branches dont re-sprout. Jean Natter, OSU Extension Master Gardener diagnostician

    There are many azalea hybrids. This one is fragrant.OSU Extension Service

    Q: Can you please tell me what type of plant this extremely fragrant, yellow-flowering bush is called? Linn County

    A: This is an azalea (Rhododendron species). There are many azalea hybrids, so what species it is exactly is unclear. However, Rhododendron luteum would be a good guess as it is both yellow and perfumed. James Mickley, OSU Extension Herbarium curator and instructor

    Either seeds or seedlings can be planted in a straw bale garden. Oregonian file photo. Marv Bondarowicz/staff

    Q: Can I set straw bales up in February for the rain to soak them then fertilize two weeks prior to planting in April? Lane County

    A: That will usually work. Often in the first year the first planting is done in a trench in the bale with fertilizer. Adding fertilizer now will also help prepare the bed. The straw breakdown creates some heat from composting once temps reach into the mid-50-60s. Pat Patterson, OSU Extension horticulturist, retired

    ClematisOSU Extension Service

    Q: The photo Ive attached show a clematis vine on an L-shaped trellis (I dont recall the plant variety). I have another, too. They were planted about two years ago and never bloomed very well (probably due to my lack of care!)

    They began blooming this year in early to mid-April. The best blooming plant faces south (but my house is about 25 feet away) and only has growth at the base and at the top (no growth in the middle). The other struggling plant faces west, but is shaded in the afternoon by another wing of my house, but it has absolutely no growth from the base to the top, and is only flowering at the top.

    The plants get about six hours of sun. I dont know if I should prune it, and if so how much and when? What would cause the bare portions of the stems? I have not fertilized it. Washington County

    A: Some clematis literally jump out of the ground the spring after they are planted whereas others slog along, takingseveral years to gear up. Those available with their rootball wrapped in plastic are often sluggish. Except for the bare stems, yours currently look fine.

    I doubt theres anything to be concerned about as long as the bare portions didnt have leaf spots or other problems. Clematis growing in clay-based soil seldom need additional fertilizer, but may do well with a boost after they are pruned.

    Clematis thrive with annual pruning, with the timing varying according to the group the clematis belongs to. In general, a useful guideline is after bloom. A practice that works well with large-flowered spring-bloomers such as yours is to cut back the stems to about 12 inches, then wait for the abundant new growth that will support next years flowers.

    You can fertilize after pruning to help the clematis put on new growth. If it has a second bloom later in the year, dont prune again. A second bloom is likely to be less showy than the first. Youll find lots of clematis info, with the bulk of the basics on the first several pages, here: A Clematis for Every Garden

    -- Jean Natter, OSU Extension Master Gardener diagnostician

    Shiny geranium (Oregon State University)LC-

    Q: My yard is mostly shady. It was invaded by shiny geranium (Geranium lucidum) about two years ago. We can keep it out of the raised flower beds pretty well but the lawn is awful. Weve tried heat killing it with black plastic (reused) tarps. It works, but they just re-invade. We dont want to use Roundup. We are not physically capable of hoeing them myself anymore and the yard guy is understandably reluctant to keep fighting such a tedious battle. What other options are there? Clackamas County

    A: Shiny Geranium is an aggressive and tenacious invasive weed. It sets so many seeds that areas with the plants develop a heavy seed bank in the soil. There are details offered in some resources Ill share, yet the basics are control it twice a year, cover the seeds with deep mulch to inhibit germination and establish plants to cover or inhibit the geraniums growth.

    In the lawn your strategy could include regular mowing to reduce seeding and keeping the turf very healthy. This means appropriate fertilization, mowing, watering and rejuvenation when the grass thins.

    Healthy lawns require sunshine, though. Is there a way to get more sun to the area? Alternatively, other plantings might be a solution. Or regular organic mulch application?

    Heres a prior answer about shiny geranium options.This Oregonian article has Extension Service information. And,thisposting from King County in Washington is fairly detailed. Learninghow and wherethe plant grows is useful when needing to disrupt it. Jacki Dougan, OS Extension Master Gardener

    Read more from the original source:
    Ask an expert: There may be help for this maple with possible root rot - OregonLive

    Butterfly conservation project planned for Clapham Common – South West Londoner - January 25, 2022 by Mr HomeBuilder

    Clapham Common will welcome a large butterfly meadow in the coming months as part of a new environmental initiative.

    The project is being primarily funded by Wild Clapham, a charity organisation set up by The Clapham Society and Friends of Clapham Common, with the aim of increasing biodiversity on the Common as well as bringing the local community closer to its growing wildlife population.

    Already, Wild Clapham has completed a number of projects throughout the Common, planting 72 trees in 2021 and introducing large areas of scrubland with indigenous shrubs that provide an ideal habitat for bees and butterflies.

    The significance of their new conservation project lies in the reality that 76% of the UKs resident and regular migrant species of butterfly are currently in decline due to shifting patterns of climate and weather, as well as deterioration and destruction of habitat.

    This is of great concern, not just for the butterfly species itself, but for the state of the environment as a whole, as butterflies are important indicators of more general biodiversity issues.

    Adrian Darley, a member of the Wild Clapham committee who also runs a volunteer group for the wildlife area on the Common said: Ive lived locally for about 30 years and looking back on that period, Clapham Common was always great if you wanted to kick a football around, but really very low in biodiversity terms.

    For the most part, the Common is made up of amenity grassland with either flat grass or tree trunks covering around 80% of its surface, meaning it offers little for the surrounding wildlife.

    The conservation project will involve removing around six inches of topsoil, before seeding the ground which will result in the growth of wildflowers.

    According to Darley, this new project will also positively impact the local community in terms of mental health:

    Since the beginning of the pandemic more people have been working from home and, as a result of this, are keen to spend their free time in the fresh air.

    This butterfly conservation project were working on will provide a dual benefit: not only will it improve biodiversity in Clapham Common, the increase in wildlife will also be more interesting and enjoyable for people to look at.

    Gareth James, a member of Friends of Clapham Common, who also sits on the Wild Clapham committee said:

    The butterfly meadow will take a year or two to establish, but once it is up and running it will be really educational for both children, as well as grown-ups, to experience, and it will really help our declining butterfly and moth species.

    Lambeth Council have given their support for the project to go ahead and work will begin in March on the meadow which is to be located on the north edge of Windmill Drive.

    Image credit: Wikimedia commons

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    Butterfly conservation project planned for Clapham Common - South West Londoner

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