– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

Stinkbugs are entering homes now in search of a place to overwinter until Spring.

It’s stink bug season again!

The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is causing frustration for home owners and farmers across America. These shielded, flying, stout, and brown insects are thought to have invaded the US from Asia in the mid-90s. Since the first one was positively identified in 2001 by Penn State they have spread across the country and now pose threats worth $21 billion to specialty food crops annually. They cause damage to many food crops including fruits, vegetables, and grains.

There are many different kinds of less common stink bugs in our region that including beneficial, predatory stink bugs. Stink bugs do not create structural damage to homes, nor are they a problem if consumed by pets, and they do not bite. However, they are a severe annoyance and threat to Continue reading Stink Bugs are Back →

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

Now that September is here, many people are shopping for fall mums to add to their seasonal décor. While many folks consider chrysanthemums annual plants that you buy and then throw away before winter, they are actually hardy perennial flowers that can be kept over in the garden for a period of about three years before it is recommended to rotate to another plant to reduce the pressures of insects and disease. If you are up for a little extra work to keep your chrysanthemums thriving in the garden, you may be pleasantly surprised to see them come back next growing season.

Mums can be planted essentially anytime from the beginning of spring to six weeks before frost as long as soil conditions offer enough moisture and fertility for good growth. Chrysanthemums can be started from seed, cuttings, or purchased in pots and transplanted. However, potted mums that are already flowering will likely not survive through Continue reading Caring for Chrysanthemums →

Tis apple season!

Find the Master Gardener, Fall 2022 Newsletter, “Through the Vine” posted here in PDF format. Articles include:

• Ohio apple varieties
• A message from our MG Coordinator, Connie Smith
• Did you Know? Determinate & Indeterminate
• Competing at the Fair
• Tomato tasting
• Diagnostic clinic
• Wagnalls’ Gourd tunnel
• Seasonal Harvesting pumpkins, A fall recipe
• Fall Gardening for Old Folks
• Featured Book; Tomato Love by Joy Howard
• Lawn care tips
• Tree burls
• Garden Gnomes
• Harvesting herbs
• The Red Buckeye tree
• See what’s happening in and around the garden

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

The season for seed saving is here!

Gardeners mid-harvest of fruits and vegetables are often curious about how to save seeds from beloved plants for next year’s garden or to share with friends. In order to be a successful seed saver, there are some basic facts you need to know.

First, let’s address why seed saving is an adventitious hobby.

Strategically saving seeds allows growers to select and save plants from their home gardens that have specific traits that they value (ex: tasty flavors, appealing texture, color, size, etc). Seed saving also plays a role in preserving historically significant plant varieties through the passing of seeds from one generation to the next. Keeping novel or heirloom varieties of seed circulating helps add diversity to the populations of plants grown in our communities. It can also help gardeners save money. What may be most appealing for some growers is that seed saving can Continue reading Seed Saving Sense →

We had a great day sprucing up the Ag Center!

Find the Master Gardener, Summer 2022 Newsletter, “Through the Vine” posted here in PDF format. Articles include:

• Forest Bathing
• Connie’s Corner
• Help needed in June
• Successful DIG
• Petunias planted at Ag center
• Teaching at 4-H camp
• Wagnalls’ new gourd tunnel
• Helping Hands in the Garden
• New LNE project
• Plants for Pollinators project
• This and That
• Ruth Stout method of planting potatoes
• Stopping bagworms
• Importance of wetlands
• Vinegar as a herbicide
• Gardening with allergies
• Featured Book, Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies by Sara Lewis
• Garden Musings
• Summer Gardening for Old Folks
• Special Events
• Step-by-step painting class
• Food preservation classes
• Dawes trolley tour (correction; call Wagnall’s with your reservation at 614-837-4765)
• In/Around the Garden

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

You can pick the flowers, but please destroy the honeysuckle plant!

Honeysuckle is a commonly found plant that often draws attention of passersby with its pleasantly fragrant blossoms from April to July. The sweet nectar inside its tubular flowers is edible by many animals and even people. There are over 180 known honeysuckle species in the northern hemisphere. It’s beauty and fragrance lead to the introduction of many non-native honeysuckle species to North America in the 1800s primarily for ornamental use. Despite the sweetness it adds to the air, the impacts it has on our environment are certainly not sweet.

Unfortunately, four of these introduced species are extremely aggressive in our landscapes and have created an imbalance in natural systems due to their ability to outcompete native plants for resources. The types of honeysuckles which are damaging to these spaces are Japanese honeysuckle, which is a vining type, and three bush type honeysuckles- amur, morrow’s, and tartarian. Some species form dense thickets of shrubs and some spread with vast creeping vines that can strangle neighboring plants. These honeysuckle species are commonly found in pastures, woodlands, reclaimed sites, and waste spaces.

Because of their invasive status in Ohio, it is every landowners’ legal responsibility to control their spread. Although they can be used as Continue reading Less Than Sweet Honeysuckles →

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

Cressleaf groundsel is known to cause animal and livestock poisonings.

Fields of yellow flowers are abundant this year across the state as many annual crop farmers faced planting delays. Some pasture fields are covered in blankets of yellow too. The scenes are deceptively beautiful with their sunny appearance but may actually pose a deadly threat to livestock if the plant happens to be cressleaf groundsel, which is also known as butterweed. Cressleaf groundsel is another weed known to cause livestock poisonings in harvested or grazed forages.

Cressleaf groundsel is a member of the aster family and displays yellow daisy like blooms in the springtime on upright hollow stems that have a purple hue. These plants are winter annuals, meaning the seed germinates in the fall producing vegetative growth and then flowers in the springtime. If allowed to set seed, the plants will appear again in greater numbers the year following. The plants typically go unnoticed in the fall, which is the best time for Continue reading Blankets of Yellow Flowers →

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

Poison hemlock is a concern in public right of ways, on the farm, and in the landscape!

Poison hemlock has already emerged in a vegetative state around Noble County and beyond. Soon it will be bolting and blooming on stalks 6-10 feet tall. All parts of the plant are toxic to all classes of livestock if consumed and is prevalent along roadsides, ditches, and crop field borders. It is a biennial weed that does not flower in the first year of growth but flowers in the second year. The earlier you can address poison hemlock with mowing and/or herbicide application, the better your control methods will be.

Poison hemlock is related to Queen Anne’s lace, but is much larger and taller, emerges earlier, and has purple spots on the stems. Another relative that is poisonous is wild parsnip, which looks similar to poison hemlock, but has yellow flowers. Giant hogweed is another relative of poison hemlock that is also toxic. All of these plants have umbel shaped clusters of flowers.

According to Joe Boggs of OSU Extension, “Poison hemlock plants contain Continue reading Kill Poison Hemlock Now (including in the landscape!) →

– Christine Gelley, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Noble County OSU Extension

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For many livestock and wildlife springtime is the ideal time for new life to be born. The abundance of spring babies in pastures and woodlands often causes concerns about potentially abandoned wildlife. Each year the Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODW) reminds Ohioans to avoid removing young wildlife from their natural habitats. Advice from ODW is that human intervention is the last hope for wildlife survival and never its best hope.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) provides the following statements in regard to perceived orphaned and/or injured wildlife.

“Wildlife parents are very devoted to their young and rarely abandon them. Many species are raised by only one parent (the mother) and she cannot be Continue reading Leave Wildlife Babies Where They Lay →

Register by the 22nd!

Want to learn more about growing an edible landscape? How about learning about those underused, low maintenance perennials? What annuals will bring that “WOW” factor in your containers? We will answers all those questions and more!!

This will a day of good information about a wide variety of topics to help you in your home landscape and your ability to grow a few fresh vegetables for your family!!

Come join the Fairfield County Master Gardeners on April 30 at their “Dig Into Gardening” event.  The event will take place at Christ United Methodist Church, 700 S. Main Street, Baltimore Ohio from 9 am until noon!!

Your registration fee includes a warm breakfast of muffins, fruit and beverages!!

Make plans to join us on April 30!! Follow this link and submit your registration by April 22.