Check out the video ” A Sad US Army Dedication” on my home page.  I came across this video on “YouTube” and I was overcome with sadness, sorrow and pride at the same time.  Having served in the Army for twenty five years and experienced Vietnam and Desert Storm.  I know what our military is going through at this very moment.  I wish everyone in the United States could actual feel the heat of day, the pain, sorrow, fear, and loneliness our military experience while at war.

War is not the flag waving and band music people think of when our military return.  It is of death, sacrifice, blood, sweat, pain, camaraderie and so much more.  For those you have served know the meaning of war.  For those who have lost loved ones, they know the meaning of war.  I wonder at times do our leaders truly know the meaning of war.

My family is a military family.  Besides myself serving, my two sons served and my son-in-law is still serving and just returned from his second tour in Iraq.  So the next time you see a veteran thank him or her for serving, because unless you have walked in their boots you have no idea what they and their families have been through.

I am always looking for different and interesting new vegetables to grow in my garden.  So I decided to try this new squash I came across this year.  The squash is actually called “Flying Saucer Summer Squash (F1 Hybrid)”.  It is a compact bush variety with intense color patterns.  You can either wait until the soil warms up and plant the seeds 1/2″ deep or do what I did and start them from seed indoors.  They are ready to harvest in 50 days.

The Flying Saucer Squash is related to the zucchini and patty pan squash.  So if you have grown zucchini before you know once they start maturing you need to check the plant daily for new “aliens”.  They basically need the same requirements as zucchini does, full sun, well prepared planting bed and regular watering.  

These particular seeds where purchased from Pinetree Garden Seeds.  A key to a heavy yield is to pick the summer squash when they are young, about palm size.  They can be prepared like any other zucchini or summer squash. 

The way I like to prepare them is to slice them horizontally, add a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil, some salt & pepper, garlic salt and chopped basal leaves.  I put them on the barbecue grill and cook them for a few minutes on each side.  I’ve been told you can even stuff them.  I’ll have to try that one of these days.  They have a much better taste than other zucchini or summer squash I have eaten.  They have a nice sweet and buttery taste.

I grew a number of this particular squash for the Colorado Springs, CO HAS Vegetable Demonstration Garden.  So if you want to see one up close and personal visit the HAS Garden.  The squash’s unique shape and color is what first intrigued me to grow some for myself.  The deep yellow body with scalloped edges and dark green center looked like something right out of Science Fiction.

Now that I am back from an self-imposed hiatus, I thought I would share some pictures from my vacation.  I made a trip back to PA. for a class and family reunion.  While showing my grandson the Hershey chocolate factory I found out they also have a garden. A twenty three acre garden.  Finding this out I could not leave Hershey without visiting the garden.

The garden was started in 1937 by Milton Hershey.  The original garden began as a 3.5 acre rose garden and has evolved to a twenty three acre masterpiece consisting of fifteen separate gardens.  As the seasons change so does the beauty and characteristics of each garden.   

If you have been fortunate to visit Hershey Gardens, which one is your favorite?  I couldn’t decide between the Perennial Garden and the Conifer Collection.  Here is a list of the individual gardens:

1. Hershey Rose Garden
2. Italian Rose Garden
3. Children’s Garden
4. Butterfly House
5. Oak Grove
6. Japanese Garden
7. Ornamental Grasses
8. Arboretum
9. Conifer Collection
10. Mrs. Hershey’s Rose Garden
11. Herb Garden
12. Perennial Garden
13. Memorial Garden
14. Square Garden & Fan Garden
15. Bill Bowman Garden

The magnitutde of the garden cannot be comprehended by just reading about it, you must visit it and take in its loveliness in person.  Just to give you a few examples of how large the garden is, image 7,000 roses, 275 gorgeous varieties, blooming simultaneously.  Each fall 30, 000 tulip bulbs are planted for the upcoming spring.  Finally, 400 different trees and shrubs and several hundred different varieties from around the world.

Granted there are larger gardens around the world, but this I found as a quiet refugee from the noise and hustle of the nearby amusement park.  A wonderful sanctuaryy to visit while your children are enjoying the thrills and adventures of the amusement rides and attractions.  If you live close I envy you.  If you are traveling nearby take a detour and visit the gardens I guarantee you will not regret the time spent touring the magnificent gardens.

The other day while making my daily rounds throughout my garden, I noticed a bug on one of my Phlox that I did not recognize.  Immediately I thought what damage is it causing?  I did not observe any damage to the leaves, but I thought I better find out the name of this strange bug.

My favorite book on identifying insects is “Guide to Colorado Insects” by Whitney Cranshaw and Boris Kondratieff.  Sure enough on page 35 I found my strange visitor to my garden.  The visitor was a Goldenrod Soldier Beetle.  The soldier beetle are close relatives of the fireflies, but they do not produce that magical flashing like their relatives.  Growing up in PA. I remember catching fireflies in jars just to see their flash up close.

The soldier beetles belong to the Order: Coleoptera and the beetle Family: Cantharidae.  These beetles feed on over 100 different insects i.e. aphids, spider mites and cabbage loopers.  Soldier beetles are nicknamed, “leatherwings because of their soft, cloth-like wings covers.  Additionally, their wing covers are brightly colored reminiscent of uniforms. 

 I was relieved to discover that my visitor was a good bug for my garden.  Now my thoughts were how to get more and keep them around?  Doing more research, I found they also love pollen.  I also found that there is on the market a bug lure called ” Rescue! Soldier Bug Attractor”.  It is a cone with pheromone inside to attract the soldier bugs.  I think I will just plant more flowers and hope I see more soldier beetles in the garden.

I did find one strange tidbit.  Normally the soldier beetles are not seen till late in the season like August and September.  So I am a little perplexed why this one is out so early.  I just hope it stays around and invites his/her relatives. 

Looking to expand your gardening knowledge or keep those pesky deer from eating everything that you plant?  Come to the Colorado Springs Utilities Xeriscape Garden Open House starting May 19th and running through September.  The Open Houses will be conducted on the third Tuesday of every month through September.

All the classes are free and open to the public.  What to learn about Xeriscape Basics and not Zeroscape Basics?  The first class will teach how to work with our arid region here in harmony and still have a beautiful landscape.  Tired of the deer eating your plants?  Join us for “They Haven’t Eaten it Yet: Deer Resistant Plants”.

Check out the following  flyer for more information and we’ll see you there.

We had a blast of cold winds, snow and freezing temperatures a few weeks ago that raked havoc on my massive blooms of daffodils.  Lucky for me the weather is more spring like now and the tulips are just goregous.  One of my particular favorite is “Golden Charm Tulip”

The reason I like it so much is that it is dependable, long lasting and puts on a spectacular show.  An additionally attribute is that its size.  It only gets to five inches tall.  With the winds we receive around here that is a blessing.  Alot of my taller tulips take a beating when the wind begins to howl.  This dainty darling hugs the ground and rolls with the punches.

I purchased the tulip from Brecks at least three years ago and it is a great performer every year.  To take the description from the catalog “Abundant pure white flowers with a yellow base are surrounded by green basal leaves which form a lovely rosette.”  The dried flower pods can be used in flower bouquets, but I love admiring their beauty in the tranquility of the garden.

One thing I have  learned about gardening here in Colorado is that the weather can turn on you in a flash.  I am learning from prior mistakes if I want to enjoy the splender and beauty of tulips here I plant mid-spring varieties.  This way the odds are more in my favor that I will get to enjoy the magic and loveliness that spring unleashes with spring flowers.

So far April has been a roller-coaster of a month.  We have had warm and freezing temperatures, rain and very wet snow.  Now the weatherman is telling us we could get rain, thunderstorms, hail and more snow. 

If you are a seasoned Colorado gardener you just take it in stride.  For those of you who are new to Colorado or new to gardening it can be mayhem. 

No matter what the weather is doing we cannot neglect chores or forget to prepare for this year’s growing season.  So here are some gardening jobs for April:

• If your vegetable beds are ready for planting, you can go ahead and plant your lettuce, onions, peas, spinach, and turnips  seeds now. 
• If you haven’t started your warm season crops such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant now is the time.
• Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and celery transplants can also be planted.
• Fertilize spring flowering bulbs.
• Aerate your lawn to help with compaction.
• Spray your fruit trees as soon as the flowers fade to control insects early.
• Now is the time to spray your spruce trees to prevent Cooley Spruce Gall. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05534.html
• Apply a good pre-emergent to kill those early weeds. 
• Keep those bird feeders full and cleaned.  The birds not only eat the seeds you put out, but also the insects that attack your plants.
• Continue your cleaning around and pruning your perennials.
• Many perennials can be planted in the garden now, such as Shasta Daisies, Lupines and Columbines.

Yesterday was a cold, blustery and snowy day, not a day for gardening.  The best thing my wife and I thought to do was go to a concert.  Actually, we had planned the concert for awhile, but after being cooped up in the house it was perfect.  Going to see Elton John perform was perfect medicine to help us out of our bored and dreary mood.

The show started at 8:00 Pm and ended around 10:45 Pm and Sir Elton John did not disappoint us and the rest of the sold out crowd at the World Area.  When we first arrived all we saw on stage was just his piano.  I thought to myself, no back up band?  I had not seen Elton John before, and I found out immediately he did not need a back up band.  From his instrumentals to his well known ballads he displayed the extraordinary talents that landed him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Even though Elton John has been performing for four decades, his music is just as powerful, energetic and heart touching as it was when he first stepped on stage.  Songs like Daniel, Bennie and the Jets, Tiny Dancer and Candle in the Wind were followed by standing ovations from the audience.   The audience was a mixture of fans who first delighted in his music in the 70s, to young neophytes of today.

Gone were the outlandish outfits and enormous glasses, but the music was just as entertaining as ever.  Watching his fingers glide magically across the keyboard was entrancing.  The notes and chords produced by the piano and his skill vibrated throughout the entire arena and everyone in it.  His voice was as strong and vibrant as ever, but the memorable high vocals were gone.  The night was one of enjoyment, memories and catching a glimpse of a super star.

The title sounds like something straight out of SCI-FI, but it is a deadly disease.  I was asked by Whitney Cranshaw, Professor of Entomology, Colorado State University if I would mention it in one of my blogs.  The subject came up in one of our Master Gardener Courses and how important it is to disseminate the word on this serious disease.

In the past decade there has been an increasingly number of Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) falling prey to the Thousand Canker Disease.  The Walnut Twig Beetle, though native to North America, is ususally connected with the Arizona walnut tree.  The Walnut Twig Beetle, though not harmful to the Arizona walnut tree, is exceedingly harmful to the black walnut trees in the eastern half of the United States.  An infestation of the Walnut Twig Beetle in the East, where the tree is native, would be a tremendous blow to the lumber and black walnut nut industry.

Quoting Whitney ” I think thousand cankers disease has the potential to devastate black walnut just as Dutch elm disease nearly wiped out American elm and chestnut blight eliminated American chestnut,” .  Whitney would like to emphasize that it is absolutely critical that no one move any walnut logs from any western state further than the Front Range of Colorado.  Additionally, he is involved in a project to identify the location of every walnut tree in eastern Colorado and trying to make a determination if any trees show the disease symptoms.  He would like to enlist the help of everyone who knows the location of any walnut/Juglans to contact him with the location, so he can visit the site this summer. 

For complete and in-depth understanding of this disease,and how to contact Whitney Cranshaw  visit http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/0812_alert.pdf.

Adult walnut twig beetle

Recently Planted

How I hope it looks in the future.

My garden family has a new member as of March 21, 2009.  I have been contemplating on a small shade tree to give my azaleas and rhododendron some more shade.   I finally decided on a Tatarian Maple, Acer tataricum, that met my requirements of: deciduous tree, medium size, drought-tolerant and fall color. 

I had made my decision weeks earlier, but none of the local nurseries had received their Spring stock.  When I finally found out that Phelan Gardens finally received some, off I went full of excitement like a young boy buying his first car.  Phelan Gardens had a wonderful selection of Tatarian Maples.  Reflecting back on what I had learned on how to select a good tree during a recent CSU Ext. class, I chose a beautiful specimen to place in the garden.

The methodology of planting a tree has really changed over the years.  Some methods were to dig a hole 2-3 times the size of the root ball.  Plant the the tree at the same level as it was in the container.  Then finally pack down the soil with your hands and feet.  Research has shown that those type of planting methods has led to an epidemic of landscape trees dying because they were planted too deep.  Trunk girdling roots accounts for 57% of landscape tree deaths. 

Trunk girdling develops when a tree is planted too deep in the root ball.  So you should check to make sure that you have two structural roots within the top 1-2 inches of the root ball and 3-4 inches out from the trunk.  You can do this by gently probbing with a screwdriver into the root ball.  Now I know that the people at your local nursery probably wouldn’t like the idea of you stabbing their tree’s root ball with a screwdriver, but check it out when you get it home.  If the tree has been planted too deep remove some the soil until you find the roots. 

The other major cause of girdling roots is planting the root ball too deep in the hole.  I remember when I used to plant trees you dug this big hole and stuck the tree in at ground level.  Now research shows that we need to dig saucer shaped holes and the root flare of the tree should be 1-2″ inches above grade.  Colorado State University  Ext. has a wonderful garden note on the proper way to plant trees. http://www.cmg.colostate.edu/gardennotes/636.pdf 

If we could get the word out on the proper method of planting our landscape trees, hopefully we can save our trees and in turn help our environment.  Unless properly planted you may have signed your tree’s death sentence.  I have attached some pictures of a couple of trees I found in my area showing trunk girdling.  Who knows how much longer these trees will live, but if they had been planted properly their lifespan would definitely be longer.