Acorns in Abundance

Oak trees across Texas are producing huge crops of acorns. Oak trees tend to produce one bumper crop every two to seven years. The more common explanation for this year’s heavy crop is the stress brought on by last year’s drought conditions and other environmental conditions.

Most authorities indicate the reason is more complicated than drought conditions alone. Whatever factors influence a heavy acorn production year, they were at play this year as oaks in other regions of the U.S. (Including the New England area), are producing exceptional loads of acorns.

Yes, walking barefoot in a lawn populated with an overabundance of acorns would be challenging. My neighbor knows the shade provided by his oak trees during the heat of a warm summer more than offset an occasional nuisance such as acorns on the driveway. Most of us have appreciated the cooler temperature and gentle, refreshing breeze under a large shade tree on an otherwise hot, still day.

Trees in the landscape provide numerous aesthetic, environmental, and economic benefits, including increasing the value of a home and reducing air conditioning costs.

The value of trees in the home landscape reminds me of a story about two neighbors. A young father was raking leaves in his yard when he noticed his retired neighbor digging a hole. When asked what he was doing, the elderly gentleman told him he was planting a tree.

The young neighbor just smiled and chuckled to himself as he asked, “Why are you doing that? That tree won’t be fully grown for 20 or 30 years, and you’ll probably never benefit from it.”

To that the elderly gentleman told his neighbor, “I know that, but aren’t you glad that someone planted that tree in your front yard years ago so that you could enjoy its shade and so your kids can climb its stately limbs?” A sobering perspective indeed.

Whether you are putting in new trees or caring for existing trees, it’s worth the time and effort to provide the proper management needed to produce healthy, vigorous growing trees.

Watch Out For Critters

Hungry hoards of mosquitoes, crickets, grasshoppers and other assorted pests-Texans have pretty much seen them all this summer, but will the onslaught stop once cooler weather hits?

The bugs of summer will subside, but a new slate is ready and willing to move right in with you. Usually during drought conditions or when the weather begins to get cooler insects and other arthropods like spiders and scorpions will move indoors. In the case of drought, they are often searching for water, and with cooler temperatures, like us, they want a cozy place to stay.

Simply keeping pests out of the house in the first place is the best and easiest way to keep your family safe. The following tips help to accomplish that:

– Prune trees and shrubs so they do not touch or overhang the house.
– Don’t stack firewood or anything else against the house.
– Weather strip doors and windows, especially if you see daylight around them.
– Block weep holes in homes with brick or stone facades using steel wool or copper mesh
   where rusting steel wool stains could be unsightly.

– Use caulk or expanding foam to fill cracks and crevices on the outside of the home and around pipe and wire penetrations.

– Keep window screens in good repair.
– Use stainless steel mesh to block attic access points.

As with any unwanted intruder, the trouble starts once they enter your home.

Food herds the harvest crew like cattle

Food provides the landmarks on the 14-hour harvest day journey. It’s something to look forward to. It also provides energy to stay the course. Love in a Styrofoam take-out container!

A hot meal will stop a working tractor or combine almost as quickly as a breakdown. Proof lies in the power of opening the van’s hatchback at supper-time. The harvest crew, a.k.a. relatives and farm help, start to gather like Grandpa’s cattle when he drives into the pasture with his pickup truck. They simply want a taste of what you brought to eat. Cattle expect a bucket of grain. The harvest crew desires a hot, home-cooked meal or the occasional take-out from town.

Sometimes traditions change and new lifestyles intervene. Yet food delivery to the working crew in the field remains one that some farm families like mine still preserve. Even this tradition has evolved with the introduction of warehouse club memberships and Styrofoam take-out containers.

A field-side picnic seems warm and fuzzy, and it really is in the moment.  But the daily process to plan, prepare and deliver proves a downright hassle sometimes, even for a farm woman who works from home. Often, her roles have heightened with farm records and marketing in addition to traditional farm and home duties.

The nightly preparation and delivery of a half dozen meals taxes the pantry and the mental menu for the farm wife.. She looks for variety within the parameters of what the crew members will eat. Even then, you have a few short orders, such as warming green beans for the broccoli haters. She knows whether they like mustard or mayo, whether they’ll even put a spoon in yogurt or cottage cheese or need a side of ketchup with their peas.

At the start of harvest, I watched a farm woman at work. Without asking, I quickly identified that the visibly stressed lady in front of me was taking food to the field. The giveaways: The down-to-earth appearance. Open insulated containers on the table near the checkout. And a multiple sandwich order complicated by her mental recollection of several people’s topping preferences. Usually only wives know a man’s relationship with certain foods. Unless you’re a farm woman!  Then you know it for all the farm employees and sometimes their kids.

I confirmed her motive at the beverage station and sympathized. She mentioned her preference to drive a tractor or grain truck. The task seemed simpler and focused. And she hoped no unannounced kids were tagging along in the field that day. Or she would be without a sandwich.

Multiply Your Plants

Propagation is a means of multiplying a plant into many more of the same type. The most common method is by collecting and planting seeds. This is referred to as sexual propagation since the pollen from one plant pollinates the female flower structures of the same plant or another plant of the same species thus creating a living seed.

Another means of propagation called asexual because no pollination is involved, but instead a section of one plant is removed and rooted to start a new plant. Examples of asexual propagation are stem cuttings, leaf bud cuttings, air layering, and tissue culture.

Grafting and budding involve removing a section from one plant and attaching it to another. This removed plant section is called a bud or scion and the plant onto which it is placed is referred to as the rootstock. The scion or bud grows to form the main structure of the new plant. It is chosen because it possesses certain desirable characteristics such as fruit size or quality, bloom size or color, or foliage qualities. The rootstock is often chosen for its ability to tolerate specific soil characteristics, resist disease or insect problems, or give a dwarfing effect to the growth of the scion.

Seed propagation usually results in a new plant that is similar but not identical to the parent plant(s). With asexual propagation the offspring is identical to the parent plant. The juvenile stage which seedlings go through before they are mature enough to bloom or bear fruit is bypassed with cuttings and grafting which is another desirable effect.

While propagation sounds complicated or difficult it is in fact quite simple. There are a number of different techniques which gardeners can use to propagate various plants. This section of the website provides how to information on how to multiply your plants. I must warn you though that propagation is addictive. You will soon find yourself driving through the neighborhood eyeing certain plants that you would like to propagate for your own landscape. Gardening friends will learn to "frisk" your pockets for seeds and cuttings before you leave after a visit to their landscape!

I should point out before turning you loose on the gardening world with this newfound knowledge and skill that some plant materials are patented and may not be propagated and sold without permission and payment of royalty fees to the owner