A couple of weeks ago I covered an event that we at Monty’s and Monty Justice himself were proud to a part of: the Grand Opening of a new all-natural Lawn and Garden Store in Louisville.
Last night, our local TV station WHAS-11 ran the story, and guess who made the news.
Monty, ya shoulda been in pictures!
For us at Monty’s harvest time is particularly enjoyable. Not only are we busy packing, preserving, and canning our own gardens but we get to find out how our hints, tips, advice, and products have helped y’all throughout the past year. It’s the time of year that we get to harvest stories and pictures.
Well, this fall is no different. Darryl from Indiana sent us these pictures of his sweet potatoes.
He planted his potatoes on May 10th and harvested them on October 4th. He is fortunate to have deep soil (about 14″ till it hits solid clay). He planted these sweet potatoes in 6″ hills and then sprayed them three times with Monty’s 2-15-15. These particular sweet potatoes weighed in at 7 lbs., 14 oz.; now that’s a lot of sweet potato pie! For Dennis’ complete directions on growing great root crops you can read more on the website.
If you have pictures of your results using Monty’s in your garden, flower beds, or on your landscape we woul love to hear your stories. Post your information in our comments section here on the blog or visit our website to contact us for our e-mail address.
Even though it is nick-named the “stinking rose,” the garlic is actually more closely related to
the tulip than the rose. Which means two very important things for you if you ever wanted to raise your own garlic. 1) It is a bulb 2) Right now, October, is the time to be planting it.
I am a garlic lover. I am not, however, a garlic expert. I did meet one though. Her name is Ellen Reynolds and she operates Beagle Ridge Herb Farm just outside of Wytheville, VA. I will tell you more about her and the farm at a later date.
Remember last week I told you about our trip to Wytheville? It was for our anniversary, and nothing says “Happy Anniversary” quite like going to a garlic festival. But that is what we did. Yep, we plant geeks have all the fun, I know. Anyway, while there, at Beagle Ridge, I had a chance to tour the facilities, the gardens, the store and attend several classes on how to prepare garlic and how to raise it successfully at home.
I talked with Ellen after class and she said that she would post that information on her web site. So, if you are interested in trying to raise your own garlic this season. Now is the time to get it into the ground, but before you head to the pantry to go get a bulb for seed read up on all things related to the care and nurture of your garlic garden here.
If you want warm thoughts all winter just dreaming of your garlic garden, then check out Beagle Ridge’s recipe section.
I hope to have a few guest columns from Ellen in the near future. Till then, wander around their site; it will suffice until you have a chance to get there. Again, like the rest of Wytheville…it’s worth the drive.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have some garlic to plant.
Leaves across the country are beginning to fall along with 
the temperatures. And the thought of falling leaves, leaves many of us with questions about what to do with them. At the end of the day, you have four basic options: Leave them alone, Mulch them (run over them with a mower or shredder), Compost them, or Rake and Remove.
Rake and Remove– This option is very labor intensive but provides the over-all cleanest results. It is becoming harder to do because of landfill restrictions on yard waste and it is not the most environmentally friendly option. It does have some benefits, though, as it removes all litter and debris and makes it harder for insects and bacteria to overwinter.
Mulching– This is the option preferred 2:1 by husbands who would rather spend their Saturday’s watching SEC football (okay, so I am biased) than doing yard work. It is quick and easy. Fire up the lawn mower, set the setting to high, and proceed. In a relatively short amount of time, the lawn is cleared of visible leaves and you can get on with your plans. A slightly more elaborate version involves actually using the bag attachment to catch the pulverized leaves then piling them around your perennials, trees, shrubs, or dumping them into your garden to be incorporated later.
This option is okay if you pay attention to a few biological realities.
The good news is these situations can be remedied with a little time and expense. Make sure you apply a good quality fertilizer like a 10-10-10 granular or, for added convenience, use Monty’s 4-15-12 and lightly spray the lawn/mulch mixture after mulching the leaves.
To boost the microbial population in the soil we recomend using Monty’s Calcium Plus or Monty’s Liquid Carbon (where available). Simply spray the surface of your soil before soil temperatures fall below 45 degrees F (below that temperature, microbes are hibernating and no additive will increase the reproduction of sleeping organisms).
Leave them alone– Growing up reading “Walden,” this option appeals the most to me. After all, no one is there to pick up after the trees in the wild. These leaves just become part of the natural order of things. However, we do not live in the wild and our neighbors tend to frown on this attitude. Beyond that, there are some other considerations. In the wild, trees are in the forest, grasses are in the meadows or grasslands. The two environments rarely mix. Because the dense shadows, wet heavy leaves, and acidic conditions brought on by the carpet of leaves is not very conducive to growing grasses. However, if you are bent on leaving the leaves where they fall, or where they blow, take the actions listed above. Provide enough nitrogen so that the soil will not cannibalize your plants and make sure you have the needed organic matter in the soil by soil testing for OM and enhance the microbial population when you can. Bear in mind that even with the precautions you can still smother your grasses and leaves ideal locations for weeds next spring.
Compost– All the labor intensiveness of raking with the added fun of having to go out and turn the, how shall I say this politely…”earthy-smelling” pile of decaying leaves. However, on the plus side of the ledger it will give you a good source of soil for your raised beds next season or fertilizer to mix in with your gardens, lawns and flower beds. You still will have the problems noted previously about needing microbes to break down the debris and needing to add a bit of nitrogen to the mix for optimal results. the easiest way to do this is to lightly spray the surface of the compost pile with Monty’s Liquid Carbon each time you go out to turn your compost bin. Directions for building a compost bin can be found here, or you can purchase one of the newer fangled ones here. Our friends at Naturally Horton’s can also be a good source of advice or materials.
So, as fall starts to fall, chose the method that is best for you and be prepared to address the needs that each method brings. Till then, keep working in the yard and garden and keep sending us your pictures and feed back.
Larry Horton, owner of Naturally Horton's in Louisville, pauses during his grand opening for a picture with Monty. Monty's and Larry's passion is educating people about sustainable options for lawn & garden care.
Monty meets with customers at the grand opening of Naturally Horton's over the weekend.
This past weekend, during the Belknap Fall Festival, Larry Horton opened up a brand new store, Naturally Horton’s.
On hand at the Louisville Highlands Community event was our own Monty Justice. Horton invited Monty to the grand opening because, in his words, “We have carried his product for years in our hardware store and we believe in buying local whenever we can. Since Monty is local and we had access to him, we thought it would be a perfect fit to have him on site to help teach our customers about
natural fertilizer and soil conditioner options. He’s just a genuine guy trying to make a difference.”
Horton has been in business with a local hardware store for 15 years. His new store will focus on
ecologically freindly home and garden products including rain barrels, compost bins, cleaners, fertilizers (MONTY’S), and pesticides among other things.
Monty helped Horton’s draw in over 100 people for their grand opening and they are excited about the future.
We at Monty’s Plant Food Company were glad that we could be a part. We look forward to a long and successful partnership. Naturally Horton’s, Welcome to Louisville!
Monty continues to show roses and continues to do so at a high level. He has just returned from a show, and his wife sent me a quick update that I thought I would share.
Monty's Winning Denali rose
Hi Price,
Please forgive me if I’m repeating myself.
The district rose show was in Louisville this year…Tenarky. People came from Tennessee, Arkansas, and Kentucky. In each hybrid class a blue ribbon winner is selected. Then they (the winning roses) are all placed on a table to compete against each other. The Queen is the best rose in the show and King is the 2nd best rose. Monty won KING with the rose Denali!!! It was a really big deal. I’m so proud of him and everyone was so nice.
Love,
Beck
Thank you Becky For keeping us informed and thanks for the picture. Good luck to Monty as he continues this fall show season.
Also, if you would like to send your pictures I would love to post them here and/or on the website. Go ahead and show us your garden & tell us your “Monty’s” story.
You know that place in your backyard that you have wanted to get looking just right for years; that project in the garden that you always wanted to do, but haven’t had the time? Well, that is the way this whole internet/social networking/blogging business has been for us.
As the friendly neighborhood communications guy here at Monty’s, these were things I wanted to do, things I knew needed to be done, just never got around to. Well, we’ve gone and done it.
A few things you might be interested in:
Of course there’s the blog (as the palmolive lady “Madge” used to say, “You’re soaking in it) so please let your friends know about the blog and the information that we are trying to get out about gardening in general and about our products. Feel free to use the facebook link or the RSS feeds to share the content with your friends.
We have a facebook page, and we would love to have you join our community there. We will be featuring “How-To” videos and other educational information there as well as posts from our friends as they tour us around their garden. Join us on facebook, then pick up your camera and send us your video!
We have completely revamped our website. Take a look. Syd, our master gardener of the web world has created a site that is user friendly and very clean and easy to navigate. He did a lot of weed pulling and rearranging to get it looking that nice, so go take a stroll through the new site. While your there be sure to visit our Forum section (this is an interactive community so joinin the conversation or start your own thread), as well as our Garden Tips and Product Info.
Finally, we are also sending out the occasional e-mail to anyone who may be interested. So If you would like the latest product news, or would like to be included in new product tests and marketing panels, you would like coupons, or just stay in touch. Fill in the information, and will get you added right away. Just to let you know, we just sent out our first e-mails offering a free 32-ounce bottle of Monty’s Liquid Carbon as a thank you. If you want to be included in our next offer, make sure you send us the info.
Well, that’s about it for now. Just wanted to share with you what’s new in the garden. I look forward to talking more in the future as we continue to grow and expand. We want to make our little garden spot a truly interactive and fun community so stop by anytime.
A family member sent me a post on my facebook account this afternoon asking me this question. I wrote him a response (he lives in TN, so my answer was geared to southern climates) and thought I would share it here since many of you may be wondering the same thing. He specifically wanted to know if he should over-seed with tall fescue, a staple of southern yards.
Tall fescue is a cool season grass, so it does well in spring and fall, and holds up pretty well late in the winter. But come summer it will brown off quickly in our hot drought conditions.
Bermuda is another common grass in this area. It does very well late spring to very early fall and is green all summer but it is nasty brown from Oct-about May. Plus, if you like to go barefoot in the spring, forget about it. The rhizomes this stuff uses to reproduce get hard when they brown off and hurt tender feet. But, you will have a nice lawn for summer BBQ’s. It looks really nice, it will get good and thick and it leaves a nice edge if you like to edge your lawn. It will also hold up to wear and tear from kids and pets.
Bermuda problems part two. You can’t get rid of the stuff. Since it reproduces with rhizomes (runners) and seed heads, it will eventually choke out everything else and it will get places you would rather it did not. It will come up through weed barriers and it will invade gardens.
Here’s what I do. I seed mainly fescue, then over-seed in the early spring with Bermuda. It will eventually take over, but until that happens it gives me year round color and keeps weeds at bay. Once it does take over, tear up the yard, rake as much of the bermuda out as you can, sow fescue in the fall then lightly sow bermuda the following spring and repeat the process in another five years. It’s a hassle but it works
BTW..one last note on bermuda, DO NOT Compost with it or Mulch with it. The seeds are very hardy and they will germinate in your flower beds.
If you don’t like the downside of bermuda, and you don’t mind brown grass in the summer or high water bills. Then go with a rye/fescue/bluegrass mix for the yard and Saint Augustine (thick bladed, shade loving grass) in heavily shaded areas or around trees. I hope this helps.
If you have other thoughts or recommendations, feel free to share them in the comment section. I would love to hear your suggestions on southern lawns.
Who doesn't need a granite garden ball, or about 1,300 other what-nots
So, last weekend was my anniversary. My wife and I like discovering unexpected places and we road trip alot. This weekend, while on just such a road trip a discovered a deliciously quirky gift store in Wytheville, VA. Learn more here.
It is a gift store attached to a restaurant attached to a collection of kitsch. The restaurant itself was pleasant and carried the ambiance of a place that was actually built in 1776. The owners have done their best to keep the centuries of history alive. That is where the ‘neat’ factor went off the chart!
In what can only be described as a backyard garden they had a collection of rabbits and birds and whatever else nature had brought their way. The
ummm....because your bird bath looked empty without the Monet print?
collection of various plants was amazing, I can only imagine what it would
look like in the spring or summer. You know the way some people are able to keep their gardens perfectly disheveled and have it look wonderful. That is the best description of this backyard oasis. Planned chaos. Organized mayhem. And that, that was just the entree to what lay in wait inside the gift shop.
The gift shop was 1/3rd garden store, 1/3rd flea market finds, and 1/3rd roadside truck-stop gift-shop. things are packed in so tightly that you can hardly move, but you have to, because around each tucked away corner there is a new treasure to be found. Fr
A very large rabbit will keep you company while you sit and contemplate life in the backyard garden.
om lawn ornaments and statuary to sun catchers and things that make you say “Whaaaat?” they have it all.
That’s what make Fall so perfect. Good weather and the time to go
discover serendipitous places. So, if you are ever on I-81 going to look at leaves in the Blue Ridge Mountains and you are looking for a great place to spend some time, or if you have a person to buy for that is impossible to surprise any more, I highly recommend you swing by 1176 Log House.
If you have a favorite ‘undiscovered place’, or a favorite place for garden whimsy, I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment or a link in the comment section to share with our community here at mymontys.com blog.
Ran across this story today from ABC News it is all about pigweed and their new resistance to herbicides. Pigweed is a fairly common weed across most US, particularly southern, farmland. The only problem is it has now developed resistance to the herbicide traditionally used to kill it.
To hit the high points, resistance-all resistance, happens when an organism comes into contact with something that does not kill it completely. That is why your doctor always tells you to take all ten days of your anti-biotic, for example. In this case, let’s say you have 100 weeds in the field, they all get sprayed either completely or partially. Let’s assume that the farmer got a good kill and 98 of the 100 plants died. The two that survived – either due to incomplete spraying or genetic mutation – now are able to cross polinate and reproduce seed. That seed now carries the trait for resistance. As more of these plants grow and survive year to year, the numbr increases until all you have left are the survivors; those with the naturally selected genetic trait for resistance.
So, why am I talking about a farm problem on a L&G blog. For this reason; you are prone to the same potential problems. Resistance can develop to insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides in your lawn and garden and in a relatively short amount of time you will have bug, weed, and disease problems that you can no longer control.
So, what can YOU do? Well, here are a few easy steps to decrease the liklihood of raising your own super-pests in your garden and lawn:
1. Follow directions completely. Don’t assume that you can or should cut back on the rate to save a few $$. If the plant is exposed but not killed, you have laid the groundwork for resistance. Don’t put more chemical in the tank than is called for, the overspray can linger in the environment and again, give a little exposure in a diluted state and foster resitance.
2. Change up your strategy. Whne possible use different chemistries to combat the same problem seasonally (or even within a season when you can). This will keep the pests guessing and keep them from building defenses to any one particular chemical. Additionally, use the mildest herbicide possible for adequaqte control. For example, don’t use a total-kill prodcut when a little 2, 4D will do the job. that will leave the big boys for particularly troublesome pests.
3. Let some weeds survive in areas where their removal is not critical or manually remove them. This will keep the susceptibility gene alive and well in the genepool. The resistance gene will start off as a mutation, and be selected against in the breeding process in the early stages. By leaving these surviors you will keep the population as a whole susceptible.
4. Make sure that the weather is suitable. Wind can cause drift – blowing the herbicide where you do not want it to be. This can kill or injure plants that you did not intend but also can give low doses to others who then become survivors. Rain and temperatures can affect how efficiently different chemicals work. If the weather isn’t right (consult your garden center or the chemical label) you will not get complete results again, giving rise to survivors.
Chemicals can have benefits for use in lawn and garden settings. However the misuse of these products can have long-lasting results for you, your gardening dreams, and for the over all environment. Responsible use should be of utmost importance for those who seek to use chemical alternatives in their gardening practices.
