LADYBUG: MULCH PROVIDES `MAGIC' FOR GARDENER

How would you like to do all of these things for your vegetable garden, and do them all as Shakespeare said, "At one fell swoop": reduce or eliminate weeds, improve the soil, attract beneficial earthworms, keep the ground cool and moist, prevent erosion and add nutrients to the soil?

Sounds like magic! It is spelled M-U-L-C-H.

Mulch is nothing new. Nature has been creating it ever since the first leaves fell to the ground. The leafy carpet on the woods floor is a perfect example.

The forest carpet decomposes, adding nutrients to the soil. An organic mulch does the same thing, while adding humus to the soil and improving its structure.

Mulching reduces or eliminates one of the garden's tedious and troublesome chores -- weeding by depriving these pesky weeds of the sunlight they need for growth. The isolated weed that does poke through is easily pulled. This easy weeding is a part of another benefit, which is moisture retention. Mulch slows moisture evaporation and protects new tender roots from overheating in the soil and also lessens the need for watering.

Many gardeners save their leaves in the fall for mulching. If you are going to use leaves for mulching, they should be composted first.

All fresh organic materials go through a natural decay process in the soil. During the decay process, large amounts of nitrogen are used up. If the decay is allowed to happen directly in the garden, nitrogen could become unavailable to plants. Low nitrogen in soils causes plants to become weak and pale. We have had an excellent example of trying to grow annuals in poor soil. Most all of the vinca's leaves turned yellow at the base of the plant.

Composting provides a way of decaying organic materials in a controlled environment. Because the decay is done outside the garden, nitrogen is not depleted from the soil.

The types of organic materials that can be composted include leaves, shredded newspapers, grass clipping, manure, and vegetable peelings. Do not use bones, meat scraps, cat or dog droppings, grease, diseased plants or walnut leaves.

At the All-America Selections Display Garden on SEMO Campus, they have used black plastic to mulch the bedding plants and vegetables. Plastic has been drawn tightly and holes cut for plants. It is a beautiful and colorful display of the newest in the world of gardening, worthy of a trip to see.

Blooms at night

Have you ever experienced the thrill of seeing a night blooming flower open before you eyes? It is an exciting experience.

When the Evening Primrose blooms, it is spectacular to see the blooms unfold. At exactly 8:15 p.m., four pure lemon yellow petals unfurled from two green calyx lobes, as large as the petals, which remained after the petals had fallen the next evening.

The plant, stands about 24 inches tall with long, sharply pointed leaves, tapering at the base into short stems. The many, many buds are held in one cone-shaped cluster at the top of the bloom stems. There were as many as 50 buds in this cluster, with several opening each night. One of the guests counted as many as 19 opening one evening. This is a relative of the wild Primrose Rose, and it blooms from June until August.

Another exciting flower to watch open in the evening is the Moonflower. When we moved into our home (where we lived 46 years) there was a small stoop with four steps to the ground from the back door. On either side of the stoop, we made regular binder twine support for the moonflowers that were planted with blue morning glories. We recall soaking the moonflower seeds. Blossoms were quite fragrant when they opened in the evening, and the morning glories grew on vines that reached the roof of the one-story house.

This huge, white flower that opens in less than a minute, is also an attraction for the fat "hummingbird moths" that forage at dusk for deep, nectar filled flowers like these. It is simple to tell when they are going to open because the bud begins to quiver.

Four O'clocks are another annual that blooms in late afternoon, releasing a rich, jasmine-like perfume that fills the air.They are undemanding plants that grow quickly with multitudes of bright open faced flowers in pink, rose, white, yellow and bi-colors, and will bloom when other summer annuals languish in the heat. They are self-sowing and once you have them they are almost impossible to get rid of. They will grow in sun or light shade and grow up to 3 feet in height.

A Night Blooming-Cereus is an exciting plant to watch open. A member of the cactus family, it blooms only once during the year in late summer. One viewed several times belongs to a friend and it is known to be more than 75 years old, belonging to her grandmother.

Many types of Angel's Trumpets bloom at dusk. Their flowers open in mere minutes and remain open throughout the night.

There are also night blooming daylilies. My mother had a beautiful one some 30 years ago.

Night blooming flowers are a fun novelty.

~Mary Blue is a resident of Cape Girardeau and an avid gardener.