Weekend Gardening: March Tips
March 24, 2012
Here are gardening tips for the month of March from the University of Florida IFAS Extension office:
Flowers
- Annual flowers that can be planted in March include: ageratum, alyssum, amaranthus, asters, baby’s breath, begonia, calendula, celosia, cosmos, dahlia, dusty miller, gaillardia, geranium, hollyhock, impatiens, marigold, nicotiana, ornamental pepper, pentas, phlox, rudbeckia, salvia, sweet Williams, torenia, verbena, vinca and zinnia.
- Caladium bulbs are extremely sensitive to cold soil. There is no advantage to planting early. Purchase caladiums while there is a good selection, but wait until late March or April before planting them in shady beds.
Trees and Shrubs
- Finish pruning summer flowering shrubs such as althea, hibiscus, abelia, oakleaf hydrangea and oleander.
- Delay the pruning of azaleas, camellias, spiraeas, gardenias and other spring flowering shrubs until after flowering is complete.
- Prune any cold weather-damaged plants after new growth appears.
- If needed, fertilize shrubs and small trees with a slow release fertilizer. A good general-purpose landscape fertilizer is a 15-0-15.
- Mature palms should receive an application of granular fertilizer. Use a special palm fertilizer that has an 8-2-12 +4Mg (magnesium) with micronutrients formulation. Apply one pound of fertilizer per 100 sqft of canopy area or landscape area.
- Last opportunity to spray shrubs with dormant horticultural oil.
- Pick up all fallen camellia blossoms and remove them from your property. This practice helps to prevent petal blight next season.
- Prune ornamental grasses.
- If you are in the market for specific colors of azaleas, visit the local nurseries and garden centers this month. Though this is not the most ideal planting time you are assured of the right flower color without having to wait until next blooming season.
Fruits and Nuts
- Time to finish planting bare-root fruit trees.
Vegetable Garden
- This is the month for establishing a spring vegetable garden. Early March plantings have about an even chance of avoiding a late frost.
- The warm season vegetables that can be planted this month are: bush beans, pole beans, lima beans, cantaloupes, sweet corn, cucumbers, eggplant, okra, southern peas, peppers, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes and watermelon.
- The cool season vegetables that can be planted this month are: beets, carrots, celery, collards, endive, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, mustard, bunching onions, parsley, English peas, Irish potatoes, radish and turnips.
- More conservative gardeners might wish to wait until the middle to latter part of the month to risk tender plants such as tomatoes and peppers.
Lawns
- Remove excessive accumulation of leaves from the lawn. This will increase the effectiveness of fertilizers and pesticides applied to the lawn.
- If a preemergence lawn herbicide is needed to control summer weeds, it should be applied in early March. Make certain to choose one that is safe on your kind of grass.
- Keep lawn herbicides away from the root zones of desirable flower, shrubs and other plants.
- Fertilize the lawn only after the danger of frost has passed and when the grass has greened up. Fertilize using a complete fertilizer applied at 0.5 lbs nitrogen per 1000 sqft containing 50% soluble and 50% slow-release nitrogen.
- Service the lawn mower: include a sharpening of the blade and adjusting of the cutting height for your type of grass.
- Anyone considering establishment of centipedegrass from seed should hold off until the soil warms up and stabilizes above 70°F. Add Item Here…
North Escambia Fans Turn Out For ‘The Hunger Games’
March 23, 2012
Many North Escambia residents were at the midnight premiere of the movie “The Hunger Games” last night.
While most were at a Pensacola theater with comfy chairs and high definition screens and sound for the midnight showing, Brittney Peebles of Bratt was at camp and decided to “rough it” at the Our Place Youth Center and Family Theater in Monroeville, Ala.
“Since the Rave is over two hours away from the camp we came to a make shift one in Monroeville! The tickets? Yeah, they are rocking the construction paper, the actual theater is a tin building and the chairs are actual chairs! Insane? I think it’s safe to say I really wanted to see this movie,” she said, about a half hour before the film began.
For a photo gallery of some of North Escambia’s “Hunger Games” fans, click here.
Pictured top: (L-R) Megan Ryan, Kolbi Cobb, Kendal Cobb and Mallory Ryan await the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games in Pensacola. Pictured inset: Kara Hardin (left) and Haley Simpson with their tickets. Pictured below: (L-R) Charleigh McPherson, Lauren McCall and Taylor Rigby at a pre-screening party. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Tate High Mock Trial Team Wins State Championship
March 22, 2012
Tate High School recently won the Florida High School Mock Trial Championship in Orlando.
Teams from 18 judicial circuits competed for the state title. Each competed in multiple rounds on the way to the state title. Judges and attorney from across the state evaluated each team.
Tate High School competed in four rounds of competition and then faced off against the Community School of Naples in the fifth and final round to win the state championship title. Tate will represent Florida in the national championship to be held in New Mexico.
Members of the Tate team were:
Asia Cravens, Sarah Barlow, Tanner Newman, Hannah Malone, Matthew Bailey, Chance Sturup, Tatiana Teate, Amy Sapp, Brianna Riddell, Andrew Belt and Ryan Colburn.
Cravens also won “Best Attorney” for her performance throughout the competition.
The Tate High Mock Trial Team is led by teacher Angie Sapp and their attorney-coach Travis Johnson of Meador and Vigosdky.
Justice Harry Lee Anstead (Retired) served as keynote speaker for the program and administered the Lawyer’s Oath to students to be temporary members of the Bar during the program. He addressed issues of professionalism and civility and encouraged students to be friendly and ethical throughout the competition.
This was the 22nd year of the state program administered by the Florida Law Related Education Association, a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan civic education organization.
Pictured top: Members of the state championship Tate High School Mock Trial Team.Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Ernest Ward Names March Students Of Month
March 22, 2012
Ernest Ward Middle School has named Students of the Month for March. They are: (L-R) Rhayeshawanna Davidson, sixth grade; Blake Green, eighth grade; and Hunter Kite, seventh grade. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Welcoming Spring: Great Weather, Great Fishing
March 21, 2012
Residents at the Century Care Center took advantage of great weather on Tuesday and spent their first day of spring fishing at the facility’s Ole Mill Pond.
Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
First Day Of Spring
March 20, 2012
Pictured: Amaryllis blooming in Walnut Hill as spring began on Tuesday. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Photos: Rodney Atkins, Travis Tritt At Beulahfest
March 19, 2012
Thousands attended the annual Beulahfest over the weekend. Friday night, Travis Tritt headlined the event, with Rodney Atkins the featured entertainment Saturday night.
For a photo gallery from Day 2 with Rodney Atkins, click here.
For a photo gallery from Day 1 with Travis Tritt, click here.
The festival Friday and Saturday featured not only great music, but plenty of fun, rides, and of course those delicious sausages. Beulahfest attracts thousands each year, with proceeds benefiting the Beulah Volunteer Fire Department and other local charities.
Pictured above: Rodney Atkins performs Saturday night. Pictured below: Grammy Award winning country star Travis Tritt performs Friday night at Beulahfest. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Smith/Kennedys Photography, click to enlarge.
Tate Trumpet Player Places Fourth In The Nation
March 19, 2012
A Tate High School senior was named the nation’s fourth best high school trumpet player Sunday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
Chris Snyder took fourth among high school players in National Trumpet Competition.
Each year, candidates from across the nation submit a video audition of themselves performing a difficult classical composition. He was one of 30 high school students selected out of hundreds of applicants who auditioned for the opportunity.
Snyder was able to attend Master Classes led by artists the likes of Doc Severinsen, longtime band leader for the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and various other trumpet professional players from top symphonies across the United States.
Snyder, the son of Mark and Sonya Snyder, is a member of the Celebration Orchestra at Olive Baptist Church. For the past six years, he has studied trumpet privately from Darryl Evans and Tom Savage, both faculty members at Olive’s School of Performing Arts.
Pictured: Chris Snyder practices at the Olive Baptist Church School of the Performing Arts. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Jim Allen 1st Graders Present ‘BUGZ’
March 19, 2012
First grade students at Jim Allen Elementary School recently presented the musical “BUGZ” with plenty of singing and dancing. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Weekend Gardening: Choosing Heirloom Or Hybrid Tomatoes
March 17, 2012
Tomatoes are a favorite of backyard gardeners. Fresh-grown tomatoes are packed with flavor and nutrition. Due to their popularity, many different types of tomatoes have been developed and selected over time. Choosing the best type for your individual growing situation will increase your chance of enjoying a mouth-watering tomato sandwich on a hot summer day.
Heirloom vegetables are back in vogue. A tomato must meet three criteria to be considered an heirloom variety. The variety must grow “true to type” from seed saved from each fruit, the seed must have been available for more than 50 years and the variety must have a history or folklore of its own. Heirloom vegetables are also called open-pollinated or non-hybrid.
Heirloom tomatoes are known for their full flavor and excellent taste. Gardeners who start their plants from seeds have always had many choices available to them. This year, I was surprised to see some heirloom seedlings in stores including ‘Cherokee Purple.’ This is an heirloom from Tennessee rumored to have come from Cherokee gardeners. Its rich flavor is said to be similar to the much-celebrated Brandywine.
While heirlooms offer better flavor, they do have a downside. Their biggest weakness is that they are not generally disease resistant and therefore more susceptible to devastating and sometimes fatal diseases. Heirloom varieties also experience more fruit defects such as cracking and catfacing.
To overcome the potential disease pitfall of heirloom varieties, many gardeners are now grafting their tomato seedlings. In the case of heirloom tomatoes, grafting involves connecting the shoot of the heirloom variety to the roots of a disease-resistant rootstock. The cut pieces are held together by a grafting clip until the tissues grow together (pictured left).
To learn more about heirloom tomatoes and grafting, read the UF/IFAS publication entitled, “Growing Heirloom Tomato Varieties in Southwest Florida.” It’s available online at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs174 or by calling your local Extension Office.
Hybrid tomatoes are those that have been breed and selected for their disease resistance and productivity. They are the first-generation cross between two “pure” parental lines.
The simplest way to define an F-1 hybrid is to take an example. Let’s say a plant breeder observes a particularly good growth-habit in a plant, but with poor flower color, and in another plant of the same type they see good color but poor habit. The best plant of each type is taken and self-pollinated (in isolation) each year and, each year, the seed is re-sown. Eventually, every time the seed is sown the same identical plants will appear. This is known as a ‘pure line.’
If the breeder then takes the pure line of each of the two plants they originally selected and cross pollinates the two by hand the result is known as an F-1 hybrid. Plants are grown from seed produced and the result of this cross pollination should have a good habit and good color.
The vigor of hybridization can increase yields, improve pest resistance and impart other desirable characteristics. Some have credited crop hybridization as a prime reason for our country’s ability to feed larger populations with fewer farmers.
A down side of hybridization is that if you collect and save the seed from a hybrid variety, its offspring will show a loss of that hybrid vigor – it will start to revert back to its inbred parents. If you want the vigorous capacity that comes with hybrid varieties; don’t save the seed for replanting. You will have to buy new seed each year.
To learn about tomato varieties recommended for Florida gardens, read the UF/IFAS publication entitled “Tomatoes in the Florida Garden.” It’s available online at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh028 or by calling your local Extension Office.
Theresa Friday is the Residential Horticulture Extension Agent for Santa Rosa County.