If there has ever been a perfect summer for gardening, then this was it!! Scott and I are still reaping the bounty out of our garden. Last year I learned how to can in Jean’s canning classes that she conducted; and I have canned green beans, tomato juice, salsa, and strawberry jam. Right now, I am a little tired of seeing tomatoes but I am sure this too will pass.

Vegetable gardens are not the only thing that flourished this sum-mer; flower gardens have been bright and colorful. With all of the fresh produce and beautiful flowers that we have this year, I encourage each one of you to enter your gar-den items in the fair this year—anything from fresh produce, flow-ers and plants, to canned produce.

Each of those sections should be overflowing this year. The Howard County Fair will be September 1-6. You may enter your items on Tues-day, September 2 from 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

Summer 2014

Howard County Horticulture Newsletter

Volume 7, Issue 2

Beauty’s Only Dirt Deep

Great Garden Year

Howard County Extension Office

421 N. Main St.

Nashville, AR 71852

870-845-7517

Sherry Beaty-Sullivan -

County Extension Agent-

Agriculture

sbeaty@uaex.edu

Deer are beautiful to watch until you see them grazing in your garden. To keep them out of your yard, hang small bars of soap, the kind you see in hotels, from your trees. Drill a hole in the middle of the soap bar. Then use an “S” hook on a wire to hand them about your garden. They will also help keep rabbits away. Another way is to

hang hoses about three feet off the ground and hang a plastic bag every 3 feet and refresh them once a month.

Smells are important danger sig-nals to deer. You can use certain odors, like rotten eggs, to keep them away from your garden and

orchard. Rabbits don’t like hot pep-per on their salad. Wet the leaves on your vegetable plant and sprin-kle finely ground cayenne pepper on them to repel the cotton-tailed pests.

Keeping Wildlife Out of the Garden

Remember we have a Facebook page and you are free to share anything that is posted there. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/HowardCoUaexAgNaturalResources

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Fall Gardens

Keep the garden bounty going by planting a fall garden. I love greens!! Whether its kale, spinach, or turnip greens. They are so easy to grow and a great way to keep your garden soil in place. Another great thing about greens - you don’t have to plant them in a row! Till up the soil and scatter seed; mix the seeds and scatter is another option. When

you go to pick and cook them, then you have a beautiful pot of different color greens and different flavors all mixed together. I like to cook mine in chicken broth. Super yummy and you don’t have to add any extra salt or anything!

Other fall vegetables you might consider are winter squash, onions,

turnips, radishes, cabbage, broccoli, shallots, and lettuce. Fall is the time to get strawberries started. This is the short list of fall crops you can plant.

plants into four groups—trees, shrubs, half-shrubs, and herbs (growth dying to the ground each year)—he established distinction that we still rely on today.

Another surviving work, that of the Roman historian Gaius Plinius Secundus, usually known as Pliny the Elder, comes several hundred years later. Born in 23 A. D. , Pliny the El-der met a dramatic end in the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius, which de-stroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. But before that fateful event, he studied the natural world in the broadest sense –astronomy, meteor-ology, geography, as well as flora and fauna—and condensed his knowledge into a book called Natural History. In this work, Pliny described individual plants and their growth habits.

At about the same time, two Greek physicians were also advanc-ing the knowledge of herbs. Diosco-rides, who lived in the first century A. D., was a physician with the Roman armies and traveled widely in their campaigns. His five-volume work on material medica described countless medications derived from local plants.

The text was medical and among the useful plants recorded were many of our most familiar herbs, such as an-ise, caraway, fennel, and garlic.

The earliest accounts discussing herbs in any abundance stem from the cultures of ancient Greece and, later, Rome. Myths surrounding gods and goddesses abound with refer-ences to herbs that were sacred to, or favorites of, a particular deity; the origin of on herb, mint, was even attributed to divine intervention.

Four surviving scholarly texts, three Greek and one Roman, provide us with the best historical evidence today of herb growing and use in ancient times. One author was The-ophrastus, of Eresus on the Greek island of Lesbos, who studied with both Plato and Aristotle during the third century B. C., thus benefitting from the best education available at the time. He put this fine background to work in producing what can be considered the first botany book, Historia Plantarum, the greatest in-fluence in Western plant study for more than a thousand years. For the many plants he included, he fur-nished information on what each looked like, where it was found, and what its uses were. By classifying

Humankind has relied on herbs since before the time of recorded history. The earliest records of useful herbs testify to practices that already were traditional. In day-to-day living, herbs served as medicine, first-aid relief, food, and seasoning, cos-metics, and dyes. In religious practic-es, they provided talismans, mind-altering substances for priestly divi-nations, ceremonial offerings, and materials for embalming. Even toxic herbs had a place in warfare, where they poisoned the enemy, and for protection from marauding animals that threatened safety or food sup-plies.

Today, herbs are used in many of the same ways, though we may not always recognize their presence. Consider this as you drink your morning cup of tea or rub on your favorite lotion…

The worlds most ancient civiliza-tions gathered, grew, and used herbs. Earliest records of civilizations from the Tigris/Euphrates region to China refer to herbs for their taste, fragrance, or medicinal qualities.

The oldest existing, authentic mentions of herbs may be an Egyp-tian document, written on a papyrus scroll, dating from about 1550 B.C.

The Lore and Lure of Herbs

don’t correspond with plants of those names today, abundant refer-ences attest to the importance of herbs in religious practices and every day life.

One other fertile source of in-formation on herbs in ancient times is, of course, the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. Even though some of the plant names mentioned

Herbs in the Dark Ages

During the centuries—often referred to as the Dark Ages—that intervened between the fall of the Roman Empire and the stirrings of the Renaissance, knowledge in the Western world was preserved and passed along chiefly European monasteries. Records and plans from those religious enclaves clearly show “physic gardens” in which were grown various herbs used to in treating wounds and ailments.

At the same time the agents of the Church kept the flame of knowledge burning, another body of herbal lore was perpetuated by the common people. Transmitted orally

from generation to generation, this body of information dealt with herbs used not only for health pur-poses but also for witchcraft, spells, and talismans.

Two notable forces ad-vanced the knowledge of herbs outside the religious cloisters dur-ing this period. Under the direction of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor, gardens were established throughout his domain according to quite specific instructions about choice of plants to be cultivated: usefulness for food, medicine, or household function was the sole

criterion.

About the same time, the rise of Islam in Arabia and its subse-quent spread throughout the Mid-dle East, North Africa, and Spain brought highly developed Arabic medical practices, derived from the Greco-Roman tradition, to regions where the ancient herbal knowledge would later enter the European main-stream.

Landscaping Tips

Do your homework before you buy. You’ll make an expensive mistake if you buy whatever catches your fancy at the nursery. Before you shop, use a good gardening guidebook to identify plants that will thrive in the conditions of your garden or flowerbed. If your garden center doesn’t always have a knowledgeable salesperson available, take your guidebook with you. When you see something you like, check its requirements. In addition, look at the pictures, too, because sometimes plants get mislabeled.

If you aren’t sure what flowers to plant in your area, visiting garden shows will give you a lot of good ideas. You may be able to get advice about your specific needs and even buy plants you like on the spot. Garden

tours can be even better, because you’ll get to meet neighbors who will probably be happy to share tips about their garden successes.

A good, quick way to choose plants for your garden is to look at what grows well in a neighbor’s yard that gets similar sunlight.

Looks aren’t everything. In plan-ning your flower garden. You may spend a lot time selecting plants that work well together where col-or, height, and texture are con-cerned. However, it’s equally im-portant to group together flowers that require the same kind of soil and have similar needs for water.

Plan your garden on paper. Fill-ing your flowerbed with a variety of vividly colorful annuals may sound

like a good idea. But sketch out your plan first using bright-colored markers. It’s easier to change your mind about colors that clash before you plant them. If you already have the plants, go back to the garden center for some with white flowers or soft-colored foliage to inter-sperse and help tone things down.

Go “grande” in the shade. As a general rule, large leaf plants re-quire less sun that plants with small leaves. Plants with big “showy” flowers require more sunlight. Keeping these helpful hints in mind will keep you from making costly mis-takes.

Soil Testing

The Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orien-tation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

Sincerely,

Sherry Beaty-Sullivan

County Extension Agent-Agriculture

Late summer and early fall are ex-cellent times to soil test your lawn, garden, and flowerbeds. To do this take random samples throughout the area, making sure you get 4-6 inches deep. Mix the samples together and bring at least one pint of soil to the

Extension office and we will send it off to be analyzed. Make sure to take separate samples from each area that will be treated differently. When the analysis comes back to you, read over it carefully. If your results call for lime, the fall and

winter is the best time to put that out at the recommended rate. If you have any questions about your analysis, you may contact the Extension Office.

University of Arkansas, United States Department of Agriculture and County Governments Cooperating

The Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, sex, gender

identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any

other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.