Cass County MO Master Gardeners

Lend a hand to reverse the trend of the monarch's decline! Plant milkweeds from our Monarch Café line, and learn other steps you can take in this article by adv...isor Jeff Cantrell: https://www.chertglades.org//lend-a-hand-to-reversing-the- Learn more about natives for pollinators here: https://grownative.org/learn/natives-for-monarchs/ Photos by Jeff Cantrell

FLOWER POTS DON'T NEED GRAVEL IN THE BOTTOM Years ago, a respected gardening magazine said to put a few inches of gravel or other coarse material at the bottom ...of a plant container to help with drainage. It sounded reasonable, so for many years, I followed this bad advice. This garden myth refuses to die, and I continue to see this advice repeated over and over again. Why is this a bad practice? Water won’t run out into the gravel, or out of the pot, or anywhere, until the soil is saturated. See for yourself. Place a sponge on top of a pile of gravel, then slowly pour water onto the sponge. Does the gravel make the sponge drain faster? No, the sponge fills up, and it won’t drip into the gravel until it can’t hold another drop. WSU professor Linda Chalker-Scott states in the link below that, "Drainage material added to containers will only hinder water movement." The reason is that soil interfaces between textures actually inhibit water movement. Just like with a sponge, water naturally settles toward the bottom of the soil. So when I partially filled my pot with gravel, that soggy soil bottom is now higher (and closer to the plant’s roots). Basically, it’s like having a smaller pot! Our plants will be happier if we uniformly increase the drainage of the soil itself by using only containers with drainage holes, choosing a high-quality potting soil, and adding more perlite if necessary. THE MYTH OF DRAINAGE MATERIAL IN CONTAINER PLANTINGS https://s3.wp.wsu.edu///403/2015/03/container-drainage.pdf UC EXTENSION MASTER GARDENERS OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY http://mgsantaclara.ucanr.edu//con/drainage-in-containers/ UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS EXTENSION https://web.extension.illinois.edu/co/choosing_drainage.cfm

Cass County Master Gardeners will be at Sutherlands in Harrisonville this morning, March 27, from 9-12.Cass County Master Gardeners will be at Sutherlands in Harrisonville this morning, March 27, from 9-12.

Grow Native! Webinar this Wednesday, Dec. 9th: Happy, Healthy Habitats with Paula Diaz Native gardens can be both functional and beautiful, but they don’t have ...a strict set of rules. Why not use our time to enjoy our gardens rather than tame them? In this talk, Paula Diaz will help transition our brains from keeping neat, tidy, and clean gardens to happy, healthy habitats. Register for this free webinar here: https://grownative.org//grow-native-webinar-happy-healthy/ See more

Hot off the press! Download a free copy of the beneficial insect handouts for fruit and vegetable growers that I recently developed for the Marion County Soil &... Water Conservation District, links below: Wildflowers for Beneficial Insects: https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com//marioncountyswcd- Beneficial Insects for Fruit and Vegetable Growers: https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com//marioncountyswcd- #beneficialinsects #nativeplants

Pollinating insects are responsible for successful pollination of many fruits and vegetables we will enjoy on Thanksgiving Day and throughout the year. By plant...ing native plants near your fruit and vegetable plantings, you can increase pollen and nectar food supplies for native bees and other insects. Sustaining their populations is important for food production. The Grow Native! program has many resources to help you help native pollinators, including this fact sheet: https://drive.google.com//1qRrqB3XkDRA8E2nBFvQXTtiTlA/view See more

What would thanksgiving be without onions? In fact what would most meals be without onions? Did you know that many kinds of bees, flies and wasps pollinate onions? #BeeThankful #givethanks