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Articles by Lucas Holman
Gardening: Fall cover crops provide another gardening tool
One thing that I hate to see in the winter is a bare garden. When we leave bare soil, it is more prone to being eroded away. A cover crop is a living crop that is used to protect the garden from erosion and to add nutrients back to the soil. They’re one of the great things to add to our lovely clay. Adding any organic matter back to the soil over time improves soil texture and quality. With the diversity of cover crops that you can use, you need to make sure that you plant them at the correct time.
Fall gardening is around the corner
With the temperatures hovering around 90, it’s hard to imagine getting ready for our fall garden. I went ahead and purchased some seeds that I’ll be planting soon for our fall garden. When I’m talking about a fall garden, I’m referring to leafy greens and things in the cabbage family. Cool season gardening, I think, just works better in the fall. All the things we’ll be discussing can handle a light frost.
Gardening: Vegetable plants produce well in the summer
In the last week, we pulled up all of our onions in the garden. When we did this, it left a big void where something else could be planted. This relates to an individual who called the office earlier this week and asked what she could plant in her dead space in the garden. Even though we are in the thick of summer, there are still quite a few things that we can plant. Depending on the weather, you will have to supplement the plants with water at times.
Gardening: Best ways to enjoy watermelon all summer
Watermelon is a warm season crop that prefers hot soil in order to grow properly. Soil temperatures play a big role in root development. We’ll see the plants take off better if the soil is hot. The soil temperature needs to be around 75 degrees in order to have a good start. They are a vining crop and require quite a bit of room. I’ve seen the vines reach 10-15 feet long. There are bush cultivars, but they will still require space for the vines.
Too early to plant a garden?
I’ve been asked multiple times this week if it’s too early to plant a garden. It is a complicated answer because it’s almost too late for some things. All of our cool season vegetables such as our lettuce, onions, cabbage, and broccoli should have already been planted in the garden. They are not tolerant of heat and typically by June they have already bolted and turned bitter. Our warm season vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers, could probably be planted now.
Pass the peas
Since we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, now is the time to start getting all your supplies and seeds ready for the garden. The last week of February is an ideal time to plant onions, kale, and my favorite – peas. Peas prefer cooler temperatures and will normally die off by June when the temperatures start hitting 80. When the peas die off, you would have the perfect amount of time to plant bush beans right back in the same spot.
January Gold
January in Tennessee can be 70 degrees one day and then change to 25 degrees the next day. The garden can look very lackadaisical compared to what it will look like in the summer. Even though the majority of the plants are dormant, you can still have color and texture in the garden in the winter. Here’s a quick snapshot of plants that still look great in the garden in the month of January. Hollies come in a wide array of colors, shapes, and sizes.
Gardening: Hollies, dogwoods bring color to January garden
January in Tennessee can be 70 degrees one day and then change to 25 degrees the next day. The garden can look very lackadaisical compared to what it will look like in the summer. Even though the majority of the plants are dormant, you can still have color and texture in the garden in the winter. Here’s a quick snapshot of plants that still look great in the garden in January. Hollies come in an array of colors, shapes and sizes.
Gardening cataloges
My mailbox is being flooded with gardening catalogs of every shape and size. It’s a great feeling to open the mailbox and find reading material that I’m interested in. Don’t be tempted to try out all of the new and exciting things that seed catalogs are pushing. Many of those things will not be in the catalog next year! I’m always interested to see which things are only listed once and never again.
Pansies
My wife and I started planting pansies in our porch pots last week. The fall is the best time to plant pansies because they will survive all winter and bust open with flowers in the spring. They will bloom throughout winter, and even poke their heads through a light snow. I’ve never understood why the term pansy equates a weak person. Pansies are the strongest flower that I can think of. What other flower can bloom on snowy days and can last for 7-8 months?
Gardening: Keeping those poinsettias bright all month
Nearly every store that I’ve visited the past week has had poinsettias for sale. Poinsettias are tropical plants that are native to Mexico where frosts are not a concern. A freezing temperature of 32 degrees will completely kill the plant. You will see damage on the plant if it receives temperatures below 50 degrees constantly. The ideal temperature of a poinsettia is the temperature that most of us keep our thermostats set. They thrive between 65 and 75 degrees.
Gardening: Children’s success is planted in garden
The average 10-year-old only spends between 4-7 minutes outside in unstructured play time. This is time that isn’t routine in their daily cycles, such as play time at school. I grew up in a small community called Westel located on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau and it’s rural. Growing up my hobbies included gardening, fishing and hiking through the woods. I would venture to say that majority of you reading this article had hobbies that involved being outside growing up.
Time to consider cool season crops
It’s really hard to think about your fall garden when the temperatures are above 90, but now is the time to start your cool season vegetables that form a head. Many of the leafy greens are directly sown by seeds, but things that form a head need to be transplanted. The popular cool season vegetables that need to be transplanted include cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. We will start these seeds in our homes under lights. The lights need to be close enough to the seedlings to prevent stretching.
Gardening: Best path to get tomatoes from garden to table
All of the local garden centers are hustling with vegetables, flowers and shrubs. The weather is the perfect temperature for working outside and in the garden. I hope to get some of my warm season vegetables in the garden this weekend. The biggest part of my garden always seems to be tomatoes because everyone loves tomatoes. Here’s a few tips to keep your tomatoes going strong all summer. First, plant your tomatoes in well-drained soil in full sun.
by Lucas Holman, UT Horticulture Extension Agent, Wilson County Winter can be bleak at times with the threat of snow and frigid temperatures, but there can still be color in the garden during the winter. Many of the variegated or golden leaved evergreens can brighten up the garden. Leaves aren’t the only thing that can show interest in the garden, don’t forget to look at bark, berries, and branches. When it comes to leaves that can pop in the wintertime, many of them are evergreen or conifers.
Gardening: A plan to keep poinsettias lovely for Christmas
How many of you knew that poinsettias are the No. 1 selling potted plant in the U.S. each year? Even though they are sold only during one season, poinsettias account for around $213 million in sales each year. We’re starting to see poinsettias in the stores now in anticipation of Christmas. I always buy a few because growing up with family members who owned a greenhouse Christmas isn’t Christmas without poinsettias in the house.
Main Street Media of Tennessee
La Vergne Senior Center sees growth spurt By Ivan Aronin | on August 28, 2024 ANGIE MAYES Main Street Media Fifty Forward, the Middle Tennessee program that “supports, champions and enhances life for those 50 and older,” took over the La Vergne Senior Center on May 1, and since then, the Center’s members have received more options of activities to do and places to go. There is a new staff, led by Center Director Donna Driver.
Main Street Media of Tennessee
Ms. Cheap: Tax free weekend 2024 could save you some serious money By Ivan Aronin | on July 18, 2024 MARY HANCE Get ready to save with this year’s Tennessee Tax Free weekend. The “holiday” on tax on clothing, school supplies and computers begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 26 and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, July 28, 2024, and ends at 9 p.m. on 4.
Gardening: Okra fans find it easy to grow
Take it or leave it: People either love or hate okra. Folks who dislike okra always give remarks about the fruit’s sliminess. I grew up eating okra at majority of our supper meals in the summertime. It was always fried and on some occasions my mother would pickle it. Out of all the fruits and vegetables that we can grow in our garden, okra is probably the easiest. It rarely has a bug or disease issues, but the only thing that can bother it is deer.
Gardening: Sweet corn should be next on your planting list
It is time to start planting our sweet corn in the garden. This is a crop that is normally directly seeded into the ground after the danger of frost. Sweet corn needs a soil temp of at least 55 degrees to germinate and that doesn’t happen until May. Sweet corn is unique in that it is wind pollinated as opposed to being pollinated by insects. It is best to plant the corn in large blocks instead of one long row.
Holman: Five-step plan for a successful garden
It is the time of year when the weather plays a role in what we can do in the garden. Here are five tips to help get your garden started off on the right foot. First, have your soil tested. This is the best place to start in determining the type of fertilizer and the timing of when to apply it. When applying fertilizer, it shouldn’t be a guessing game and a soil test will be very specific on what to apply.
Gardening: Keep the onions dry for a successful crop
In Tennessee we plant onions early. We will generally plant them between the last week of February and the last week of March. The biggest hiccup we’ll face is the amount of rain we’ll receive. My garden is a muddy mess, and I don’t think I’ll be able to plant until it dries up a little bit. Onions will do just fine if you plant them in the mud though. Onions are a cool season crop and prefer temps below 75. We see onions planted three ways – sets, seeds or bulbs.
Winter caring for plants
The weather has played havoc with our travel plans recently and forced us to stay home. We’ve been getting some questions regarding how the weather is going to affect the current landscape plants. The weather that we have recently had is nothing like last year. We slowly acclimated to the low temperatures, as opposed to dropping 60 degrees in a 12-hour period. Luckily, most of our landscapes will not see any damage from the current situation.
Gardening: Caring for your plants through the snow and ice
By Ivan Aronin | on January 21, 2024 LUCAS HOLMAN The weather has played havoc with our travel plans recently and forced us to stay home. We’ve been getting some questions regarding how the weather is going to affect the current landscape plants. The weather that we had recently is nothing like last year. We slowly acclimated to the low temperatures as opposed to dropping 60 degrees in a 12-hour period. Luckily most of our landscapes will not see any damage from the current situation.
Lucas Holman: Hollies make a winter garden brighter
By Ivan Aronin | on December 28, 2023 LUCAS HOLMAN Even though there are no blooms in the garden, which doesn’t mean the garden has to look drab in the winter. When it comes to winter interest in the garden, we must look for things that aren’t necessarily flowers. My favorite ornamental for the wintertime is hollies. I’m always impressed by their shape, berry color and leaf color on those […] Sorry! An active online subscription is required to access this content.
Ornamentals help boost winter gardens
Even though there are no blooms in the garden, that doesn’t mean the garden has to look drab in the winter. When it comes to winter interest in the garden, we must look for things that aren’t necessarily flowers. My favorite ornamental for the wintertime is hollies. I’m always impressed by their shape, berry color, and leaf color on those that are variegated. We have hollies that have golden or variegated leaves.
Seed catalog arrival
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Seed catalog arrival
Seed catalogs have started to hit my mailbox in full force. The seed companies seem to have the ability to send them when you’re missing the garden the most. Seasonal affective disorder is real in the winter, and the seed catalogs seem to brighten up those cold and muddy days that we will have in the winter. It’s always exciting to see the new flowers and vegetables that are going to be coming out in the next year though.
Gardening: Seed catalogs starting to grow in mailboxes now
By Ivan Aronin | on December 10, 2023 LUCAS HOLMAN Seed catalogs have started to hit my mailbox in full force. The seed companies seem to have the ability to send them when you’re missing the garden the most. Seasonal affective disorder is real in the winter and the seed catalogs seem to brighten those cold and muddy days that we will have in the winter. It’s always exciting to […] Sorry! An active online subscription is required to access this content. Please login below or Subscribe today!
Gardening: Poinsettias bring color if you treat them right
By Ivan Aronin | on November 24, 2023 LUCAS HOLMAN Winter can be muddy and gray in Tennessee, but luckily, we have a few plants that can brighten up our homes. We’re starting to see poinsettias in the garden centers and grocery stores. Poinsettias have really changed over the past 50 years with many new bright colors that will brighten up your homes this Christmas. Red is the common color, but they also come in pink, cream, variegated and even orange now.
The brighter, the better
Winter can be muddy and gray in Tennessee, but luckily, we have a few plants that can brighten up our homes. We’re starting to see poinsettias in the garden centers and grocery stores. Poinsettias have really changed over the past 50 years, with many new bright colors that will brighten up your homes this Christmas. Red is the common color, but they also come in pink, cream, variegated, and even orange now. Start out on the right foot and purchase healthy plants.
November tasks
Frost has eliminated our warm season annuals in the past week, but there are still things to do in the garden. Here are some simple tasks to ensure that you have a great garden in 2024. First, organize your leftover seeds that you will use next year. Seed companies send you catalogs when you are missing the garden. They do an excellent job of capitalizing on this need for ordering seeds. If you organize and go through what you need, you may not need to order any seeds for the 2024 season.
Finding fall bulbs
We have two main categories of bulbs that we can plant in Tennessee. Fall-planted bulbs will yield spring blooms, while spring-planted bulbs will generally flower in the summer months. Now is an excellent time to plant our spring-flowering bulbs. When selecting a site, select one that has well-drained soil that doesn’t pool water in the winter months. Most fall-planted bulbs are easy to grow, provided they have good growing conditions.
Lucas Holman: Fall bulbs planting time has arrived
By Ivan Aronin | on October 25, 2023 LUCAS HOLMAN We have two main categories of bulbs that we can plant in Tennessee. Fall planted bulbs will yield spring blooms, and spring planted bulbs will generally flower in the summer months. Now is an excellent time to plant our spring flowering bulbs. When selecting a site, select one that has well-drained soil that doesn’t pool water in the winter months. Most fall planted bulbs are easy to grow provided they have good growing conditions.
Call me a pansy
After the harvest of your summer vegetables, it might be a good time to think about a cover crop over your garden. I’m not a fan of bare ground during the winter, because a lot of our good soil could potentially be washed off. One way to remedy that is to plant something that will hold that soil in place during winter. Cover crops have a lot of benefits. They will add organic matter back to the soil and help break up the hard soil that we have.
Garlic:UT Gardens’ 'Plant of the Month' for October
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No vampires reported following Garlic planting
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The large world of cover crops
After the harvest of your summer vegetables, it might be a good time to think about a cover crop over your garden. I’m not a fan of bare ground during the winter, because a lot of our good soil could potentially be washed off. One way to remedy that is to plant something that will hold that soil in place during winter. Cover crops have a lot of benefits. They will add organic matter back to the soil and help break up the hard soil that we have.
A Southern delicacy
In the next few weeks, we’ll be planting our patches of greens. A few years ago, I had the best turnip green patch I have ever had. We were able to prepare our ground the last week of August, and we planted right before a big rain. Those greens lasted most of the winter. In Tennessee, greens can mean many things. When I’m referring to greens, we’ll be discussing mustard, turnips, and collards. Each one tastes different, and folks have very strong opinions about each one.
Cole crops
The fall is one of the best times to garden because it’s cooler, and we have less insects. Many leafy greens prefer to be directly planted, and we will plant our greens at the beginning of September. Other things that we’ll plant at the beginning of September will be our cole crops, which include broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. These are transplanted into the garden instead of directly sown by seeds.
Getting started with apples
Over the past few years, home planting of fruits has been huge. One of the fruits that I get the most calls on is apples. When we go to the garden center, we see large apple trees and automatically start thinking about what we would do with them. Our thoughts run from apple pies to apple butter to cooked apples. We don’t think about the maintenance that will be required to harvest our first fruit. It will also take around 4-6 years to have our first good harvest.
Planting July veggies
As we pull out some of our cool-season vegetables that have bolted, you still have plenty of time to plant some warm-season vegetables in the garden. My squash was starting to succumb to the dreaded squash bug, so I turned it under this past weekend. The lettuce was flowering, and the cole crops were done for the year. They were tilled under also. Now that I have bare ground again, it’s time to replant a few things that will still have time to produce a crop before our first frost.
Easy fruits for Tennessee gardens
I get asked from time to time what is the easiest fruit to grow in Tennessee. My favorite answer is, “(It’s) blackberries, because they grow in the ditches on the side of the interstate.” When we have late frosts, we will have the potential to lose much of our tree fruit, but blackberries seem to never waver during the late frosts. They are heat tolerant and will grow great in our lovely Tennessee soil. One of their main requirements though is good drainage.
An excellent time for pumpkins
One of my favorite things about fall is that the pumpkin stands that will be selling on the sides of the road. There are hundreds of types of pumpkins on the market today, and I’m sure you can find one that will fit your style. The middle of June is the ideal time to plant pumpkins if you want pumpkins for the Halloween season. If you plant them too early, then you may have pumpkins a month too early.
Warm watermelons
Some of the things that we grow in the garden just perform better when it is hot. Watermelons germinate better and more consistently when the soil temperatures are between 70 and 80 degrees. You can either purchase watermelon transplants or directly plant seeds into the garden. Make sure you give them plenty of space, because watermelon vines can run up to 10 feet in the garden. Most people will space their rows around 6 feet and space their plants around 2 feet in the rows.
Lucas Holman: Cool watermelons start in hot soil
Some of the things that we grow in the garden just perform better when it is hot. Watermelons germinate better and more consistently when the soil temperatures are between 70 degrees and 80 degrees. You can either purchase watermelon transplants or directly plant seeds into the garden. Make sure you give them plenty of space because watermelon vines can run up to […]
Sweet corn
We now have soil temperatures where they need to be for sweet corn. Keep in mind that all corn is not sweet corn. Much of the corn that we see planted in large tracts of land is dent corn and will be used for animal feed. We also have types of corn that will be used for flour and popcorn. Be sure to research your choices before purchasing your seeds. Sweet corn should be planted in an area that is in full sun with well-drained soil.
Gardening: May is a ripe time for tomato success
The rain is coming down and our gardens needed a good drink. I have about half of my warm-season vegetables planted and hope to get some more out when it dries some. May is the perfect time to plant warm-season vegetables because the soil temperatures are where they need to be for our tomatoes. Just because you didn’t plant tomatoes in April, […]
Gardening: May is a ripe time for tomato success
By Ivan Aronin | on May 19, 2023 LUCAS HOLMAN The rain is coming down and our gardens needed a good drink. I have about half of my warm-season vegetables planted and hope to get some more out when it dries some. May is the perfect time to plant warm-season vegetables because the soil temperatures are where they need to be for our tomatoes. Just because you didn’t plant tomatoes in April, don’t fret because you still have plenty of time in the next few weeks to get it done.
Tomato time
The rain is coming down, and our gardens needed a good drink. I have about half of my warm-season vegetables planted and hope to get some more out when it dries some. May is the perfect time to plant warm-season vegetables, because the soil temperatures are where they need to be for our tomatoes. Just because you didn’t plant tomatoes in April, don’t fret, because you still have plenty of time in the next month to get it done.
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