Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers of Buncombe County

garden planning

Garden Questions? Find Internet Answers!

We know you have lots of gardening questions. You know you can call (828-250-4878) or email (buncombemg@gmail.com) Extension Master Gardener Volunteers to get answers! But what if you need an answer NOW, or you are interested in a general gardening topic or a complex garden project? Where can you find reliable information? Here are some tips!

Learn about North Carolina State University Extension Service resources
There are lot of resources tailored to our state that should be your first stop.

Using Search Engines
When you search on the internet it is all about how you frame your search question and where you search!

How to search
Think about the key words you need to include to find the answer to your question.

Focus on the specific issue and type of gardening or plant. For example: “vegetable gardening” or “carrot pests.” For NC Extension information, include “NCSU” after your topic.

  • Avoid extra words! Don’t bother to say: “How do I learn about my backyard vegetable garden? NCSU” or “What are those destructive pests on my carrot? NCSU”
  • Try different search words if your results are too broad or too narrow
    • Focusing on specific locations and seasons is often necessary for garden info! So “spring vegetable gardening WNC NCSU” brings up the most specific information for our area.
    • Using the correct terms or more specific details may improve your results. “carrot critters NCSU” does not get you to specific information about insects; “carrot pests NCSU” does!
  • If your key word search is coming up empty, try an image search! Click on “images” rather than “all” in your search engine.
    • If you don’t know if it a pest or disease affecting your plant, you could use “carrot problems NCSU” to look at images to try to find something that looks like what you’re seeing! Look at the information with the image; you will often find better words to use in your search.
    • Image searches can also help with plant ID if you’re not sure what the plant is! Here a description is useful: “shrub with large pink flowers NCSU” or “spring-blooming white flower with five petals NCSU” or “tree with yellow fall leaves NCSU” might lead you to further clues to its identity.
Looking at images may help to identify more information for your word searches.

Where to search
You likely have a favorite search engine, such as Bing or Google, but have you tried One Search for Extension? This is a specialized Google link that will bring up Extension sources across the United States: https://impact.extension.org/search/

  • To find information for North Carolina, enter your topic and include “NCSU” for North Carolina State University or try just “WNC” to focus on the mountains.
  • If the information from NC sources is limited, search the topic without a location—information from other Extension sources may be helpful.
    • For indoor gardening most Extension information will be applicable to our area, but for outdoor gardening be sure to consider that growing conditions or pests and diseases may be different!
    • Information from Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia Extension sources is often the most useful.
There is little information on growing citrus in North Carolina, even indoors.
Information from other states about growing citrus indoors can be helpful.

Happy searching!

 Article by Buncombe County Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers

 

Garden Planning: Think Small!

 

Fairy gardens are the ultimate in thinking small

Looking forward to a new gardening year, we often think big: We’ll have the biggest vegetable garden ever—grow all the flowers we’ve been meaning to try—or how about starting an herb garden—replacing foundation plantings? While it’s cold and we’re dreaming we can be most ambitious—but also most creative! So consider how thinking small might mean your best gardening year, yet!

Some ways of thinking small
Now is the time to map out your garden projects, buy seeds, start preparing for planting—and the time to consider how to garden smart.

Incorporating edibles into your landscape
  • Rather than starting a whole new garden for vegetables, fruits, or herbs, consider integrating edibles into your existing landscape. A recent North Carolina Extension publication (see references below) provides sample plans for both in-ground and container plantings for a variety of sun/shade conditions.
  • Consider using smaller plants as well as smaller gardens.
    • Many vegetables and fruit trees come in “dwarf” or “compact” varieties, allowing you to grow more produce in smaller spaces.
    • Minigardens/container gardens may use these smaller plants, but also capitalize on closer spacing of plants in the ground or using unused above-ground space on decks, driveways, patios, and porches to grow plants in containers.
    • If you have existing gardens, consider replacing overgrown plantings with trees/shrubs/perennials that better fit the space available.
Patio tomatoes don’t need staking and can be planted in containers

Maintenance
It’s easy to think about great times in your garden when you’re stuck inside, but now is the time to think about the gardening tasks you hate as well as those you love! I share a plot in our local community garden, and it is always sad to see all the number of plots abandoned in midsummer when weeds or insects or diseases overwhelm. Shrubs and trees in many home landscapes look just as abandoned!

Dwarf fruit trees are easier to maintain than full size fruit trees

Some ways to minimize maintenance:

  • Reduce areas you need to water
  • Reduce areas you need to weed
  • Choose disease-resistant varieties of vegetables and herbs
  • Choose shrubs and trees that need little pruning to keep looking good and staying within the space—both horizontal and vertical—that’s allotted
  • Avoid plants that need frequent deadheading or cutting back—including lawns
  • Mulch unplanted areas

 Article by Buncombe County Extension Master GardenerSM Volunteers

 For more information:

Growing edibles in the Landscape:
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/growing-edibles-in-the-landscape

Dwarf tomatoes:
https://extension.psu.edu/dwarf-tomatoes-save-space-and-taste-great
https://www.dwarftomatoproject.net

Growing vegetable in minigardens:
https://www.tnstate.edu/extension/documents/GrowingVegetablesinMiniGardensContainers.pdf

Low maintenance landscaping:
https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g6902

 

 

 

Gardening Outdoors: Vegetables, Flowers, Whatever You Like!

Do you suddenly have more time to garden? That’s the good news! This is a busy—and often a favorite—time of year to garden as everything springs to life with fresh new growth! It is also a time when gardening chores begin in earnest: plants need planting, weeds need weeding, lawns need mowing, mulch needs to be spread. In this time of pandemic, let’s focus on how gardening can be a fun activity that provides time outdoors to de-stress and get some exercise! Even if you don’t have any land to garden, if you have any space to plant containers outdoors—even on a balcony, or by your door, go for it:  https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/18-plants-grown-in-containers

Vegetables
If you’ve never grown your own food, this is a good year to start! If you are a seasoned gardener, this is a chance to have a more ambitious garden or try some new crops or methods.

There is a wealth of information on how to choose a site, what to grow when to plant, how to troubleshoot pests and diseases, when to harvest in the North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook:  https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/16-vegetable-gardening
The time for planting cool season crops is waning, so focus on warm season crops to plant in May. You may need to do some calling around to find out who is selling seeds and plants; another chance to explore new things—different sources, new varieties!

Flowers
If vegetable gardening doesn’t appeal, you can brighten your landscape by planting flowers.
Annuals. Again, there may be limited outlets and varieties available, but for a small investment, many warm season annuals will quickly give you a long season of bloom: even the commonly available begonias, marigolds, and petunias come in many colors and sizes. Or try something a little different like upright Angelonia, trailing Calibrachoa, filmy Cosmos, or Pentas. This is instant gratification—although these plants will not come back, it could be the beginning of a new tradition of flower gardening.

Think about ordering flower bulbs to plant in the fall

Perennials. Planting these may not produce flowers as quickly, but the plants will come back yearly with a little care, and some may even spread. You can start a specialty garden of a favorite type of flower, such as daylilies, which can bloom over much of the summer if you choose early, mid- and late season varieties. Or you might like to start a wildflower garden of native plants. These might include groundcovers such as green and gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) or Allegheny spurge (Pachysandra procumbens) that bloom in spring, as well as some showy summer bloomers beloved by pollinators, such as butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia triloba), and garden phlox, and for fall, asters.

Whatever!
Plant a tree. If you see a spring-blooming tree you love, consider planting a young one in your own landscape. Do your homework to be sure your choice is the right size for your yard and that you have the right growing conditions. The Forest Service provides a lot of useful information about choosing, planting, and caring for trees in this “Owner’s Manual”:  https://www.fs.usda.gov/naspf/sites/default/files/tree_owners_manual_print_res.pdf


Add a new garden feature. Have you always wished for a small pond, a raised bed, a trellis, or a comfortable bench in your garden? Consider taking on a do-it-yourself project this spring!

Article by Buncombe County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers

For more information:
Pollinator plants:https://homegrown.extension.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Pollinator-Garden-Plant-List.pdf

Contact Us

Buncombe County Extension Office
49 Mount Carmel Road
Asheville, NC 28806
Helpline 828-255-5522

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