Dakota Gardeners AKA Claybusters

Officers for 2012 Presidents: Sande Speck and Judy Rau Vice-President: Anna Marie Johnson Secretary: Mary Bittner Treasurers: Linda Wiltfang and Rick Menk Members-at-Large: Linda Beek and Konnie Thompson Advisor: Pam Farrell

Winter 2012

Winter A time of reflection, A time for some snow, A time to decide, The seeds we will sow. Plans we will make, For the things we will grow, Such hope for the Springtime, True gardeners know!

-Gardeners are longing to smell like dirt! -Never go to a doctor whose office plants are dead! Erma Bombeck
Its a privilege to be part of this club! As members, we all need to pitch in and do our part to make the club as successful as it can be. The members below are helping and would love to have you join them. We need Chairs or Co-Chairs for the Perennial Plant Sale and Summer Garden Tours. As far as tours, we already have gardens for July planned. Please let us know at the next meeting

Our website is up and running! Go to www.Dakotagardeners.org Please check out this exciting website.

Committee Chairs: Holiday Party: Judy Rau Tha nks Annual Plant Sale: Konnie Thompson ! Quarterly Newsletter: Jackie Overom Door Prizes: Mary Bittner Membership/Website/E-mail Notices: Pam Farrell Alternative sender of E-mails: Judy Finger Need Chair Persons for
Please step up and give us a hand! We can do great things with little effort with many helpers:)

(1) Perennial Plant Sale (2) Summer Garden Tours

Holiday Party2011
What a wonderful evening for all those attending. We truly need to thank so many for all the help in planning and the generous donations of door prizes. A couple very special thankyous go to Judy Rau, our leader, and Konnie Thompson, our creative guru!! From the food, to the entertainment, to the favors and centerpieces everything was delightful. As usual, Pam Farrell made lovely centerpieces for each table. The following list is of the businesses and individuals that donated door prizes. Please support these generous folks throughout the year.

Bachmans Cardinal Corner Donna McCarthy Faerie House Gertens Gift, Home, and Garden Highland Nursery Konnie Thompson Leitners Lilydale Pahls Market Rusty Rabbitiques Tangletown Terra
If Id had my way in this world, Id outlaw electric trimmers. People get carried away. We have no glue to cement those limbs back on after theyve erroneously taken them off. To preserve a natural look, you should avoid severe pruning.

Cy Klinkner 1995

Page 2

New Life for an Old Friend.

The time has come to let go of something sentimental. Boy, not an easy thing to do! This famously wicked tree was once a large buckthorn in our front yard. You heard me right, a master gardener nurturing a buckthorn! This was our daughters growing tree. She chose it from the woods when we first moved here and we planted it as a family hoping it would grow along with her. Not knowing what it was at the time:) Our son chose a red oak, but poor Heather chose a buckthorn. Tim and I decided finally to let it go. With a few tears the old tree came downbut not all the way. We made it into a bird feeding station. A new life! A very successful new life I might add. We now feed lots of little friends including a group of 6 gray squirrels we call The Bully Boys. It is a new adventure and we are actually enjoying the new life of this tree. If you have a buckthorn (or a few) in your area its a good thing to get rid of them. Buckthorn is very invasive and has a toxin it produces in the root system which inhibits the new growth of our native species here in Minnesota. The other very bad aspect of this tree is that the female produces literally zillions of seeds. They are purple and not only stain what they land on, they all sproutevery one of them:) I have been picking buckthorn seedlings by the basketful for years out of my front garden. I hope now to have a big chunk of my gardening time to spend on better weeding. So, if I can do ityou can too. Get out there and pull that buckthorn. Use a saw if you must, but take it down:) Or part way down!
Count the feeders:)

You have to think and think to get something simple. Ron Lutsko 1997
Page 3

Some very good questions!

A couple of questions were sent to me and the following is the best advice I could come up with.
1. Is it still a good time to prune deciduous trees and shrubs this winter with all the warm weather we are having? The dormant season, late fall or winter, is the best time to prune although dead branches can and should be removed at any time. Even though our winter has been unusually warm, the trees are dormant. Pruning during the dormant period minimizes sap loss and subsequent stress to the tree. It also minimizes the risk of fungus infection or insect infestation as both fungi and insects are likely to be in dormancy at the same time as the tree. Finally, in the case of deciduous trees, pruning when the leaves are off will give you a better idea of how your pruning will affect the shape of the tree.

How To Prune
Large trees aside, there are many pruning jobs that you can do on your own. In all cases, the key is to prune the unwanted branch while protecting the stem or trunk wood of the tree. Tree branches grow from stems at nodes and pruning always takes place on the branch side of a stembranch node. Branches and stems are separated by a lip of tissue called a stem collar which grows out from the stem at the base of the branch. All pruning cuts should be made on the branch side of this stem collar. This protects the stem and the other branches that might be growing from it. It also allows the tree to heal more effectively after the prune. To prevent tearing of the bark and stem wood, particularly in the case of larger branches, use the following procedure: 1. Make a small wedge shaped cut on the underside of the branch just on the branch side of the stem collar. This will break the bark at that point and prevent a tear from running along the bark and stem tissue. 2. Somewhat farther along the branch, starting at the top of the branch, cut all the way through the branch leaving a stub end. 3. Finally, make a third cut parallel to and just on the branch side of the of the stem collar to reduce the length of the stub as much as possible. The best advice about pruning I can give you is to be safe, and if you have a branch larger than a couple of inches in diameter it is probably best left to a professional. When choosing your professional always make sure the crew has a certified arborist working. Those folks know what they are doing .

A garden is a gymnasium: an outlet for energy, a place where accidents occur, where muscles develop and fat is shed. Geoffrey B. Charlesworth 1994

Wheres Winter?
How are all of our gardens going to survive this warm winter, no snow cover, little ground moisture? Boy, thats a tough one. I dont think I ever remember times like this. As master gardeners, I dont think any of us can really say. Hopefully you did some extra watering this last fall and did some mulching after the ground froze. The sensible advice is that if we have a dryer spring than normal you should begin watering as soon as the ground thaws. Even though we have these unusually warm January days the ground is still frozen below the surface. Cold nights are on their way and things wont really thaw yet. So in reality, we will all just have to wait and see. If you have any trees or plantings that have been struggling at all, pay extra attention to them this coming year. Good water and fertilizer may just be enough to give them the little extra TLC they may need.

What in the world could this be!!!

If you guessed spider mites you are correct. Spider mites are real houseplant pests this time of year. They can come in on Christmas trees or any plant material brought into the home. Sometimes they just show up with no apparent cause. They love the dry winter conditions in our homes. They begin feeding on the underside of the leaves and then multiply. Real cute!! Since they are hard to see with your own eye, you can place a white paper under the leaves and tap the leaf. If you have little black spots that move on the paper then you have identified your nuisance. To rid yourself of these nightmares you will need to be diligent. Wash your plants with warm water that has a little dish soap in it. Just a few drops of soap added to 4 cups of water is enough. Then you can put a granular household insecticide on the top of the soil and water your plant. Bonide makes a very good one that sells for around $8.00. It protects your plants for up to 8 weeks. It will also help your plant to mist it occasionally. Moisture and humidity are needed with our furnaces constantly drying the air out.

A neighbor suggests that I might put up a scarecrow near the vines which would keep the birds away. I am doubtful about it: the birds are too much accustomed to seeing a person in poor clothes in the garden to care too much for that. Charles Dudley Warner 1850