HOLIDAY DECORATING WITH NATURAL MATERIALS

Join Extension Master Gardeners for a FREE Walking Tour of the Pitt County Arboretum.  This months tour guide will demonstrate how to take cuttings from your garden to use for holiday decorating.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1st

10:00 AM

The Tour begins under the Green Roof Shelter in front of the Ag Center (Click on MAP link for directions).

Call 902-1709 if you have any questions.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity:  it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all."

William Faulkner

CARING FOR YOUR GARDENING TOOLS

Danny Lauderdale's weekly Daily Reflector article stressed the importance of protecting the tools we use in our gardens.  If you would like to read in more detail how to maintain shovels, rakes, hoes, pruners, etc., follow this link:

Sharpening and Cleaning Tools

CAMELLIA SASANQUA

 To either side of the entrance to the Ag Center you will find a row of fall blooming 

Camellia sasanquas.  They form a full, glossy green hedge when not in bloom.

Camellias come in a large variety of sizes ranging from 4-15 feet with flower colors in shades of pinks, reds, and whites.  According to 'Floridata':
"Sasanquas can cope with many different soil types. They prefer rich organic acid soils (the same as azaleas and rhododendrons). Provide plants with an organic mulch such as leaf litter or shredded bark. These plants have beautiful natural shapes but if you need to do some pruning it is best done "lightly" and in very early spring before the buds form."

Follow this link for the NCSU Fact Sheet:  Camellia sasanqua

FALL COLOR

It may be a bit cooler this weekend, but the scenery outside is worth heading out to see.  Many trees and shrubs are at their peak color.  Bring your family, a picnic, and a camera and come out to the Arboretum this weekend for a picture perfect time.  The stores may be trying to get you to think about Christmas, but why not savor the fall for a few more weeks?

Cornus kousa  (Kousa Dogwood)

FALL MULCHING

A group of Master Gardener Volunteers spent this week at the Arboretum mulching.  They used shredded leaves and the free mulch from the Pitt County Transfer Station.  Mulching now will help protect the roots from some freeze/thaw cycles we inevitable experience.  It also will keep the soil a little warmer so root growth can continue.  And we are hoping that it will help smother weed seeds!  Click here for an interesting article on FALL MULCHING.    Remember to keep mulch a few inches away from the base of the plants and please don't volcano your mulch even if you see it done in commercial settings.  Read this MULCHING  fact sheet for all you could possibly want to know about the why, what, and how of mulching.

The Transfer Station at 3025 Landfill Road in Greenville has FREE MULCH for you, too.  Call 902-3351 to find out days and times you can pick it up.  At the Greenville location, they will load your truck/pickup/trailer for you.   In Ayden-Grifton site at 5171 Weyerhaeuser Road you will need to load it yourself.  Be sure to take a tarp to cover it before leaving the station.

FREE WALKING TOUR OF ARBORETUM

 Join the Extension Master Gardeners

for the next FREE WALKING TOUR

of the

PITT COUNTY ARBORETUM

Meet under the Green Roof Shelter

in front of the Ag Center

November 3rd, THURSDAY

10:00 AM to 11:00 AM

(Rain or Shine!)

The November tour will feature

composting: the how, the why, the when!

Questions? Call (252) 902-1709