The Eve of THE EXPERIENCE

Well, it's the eve of the Carolina Yard Experience. If you don't know what it is, or are deciding whether to go or not, read on for all the insights.
Come join Clemson Extension Tri-county Master Gardeners, Clemson's Carolina Clear Program, the Ashley Cooper Stormwater Education Consortium, Charleston, Berkeley & Dorchester County Recycling, DHEC, and the Charleston Exchange Park for the first ever Tri-County Carolina Yard Experience!
Based on the Carolina Yards & Neighborhoods program, this event will inspire participants to create attractive and healthy yards by working with the
environment, rather than against it. This is a free, environmental event focused on the home landscape-including environmentally friendly gardening
practices, recycling, rainwater harvesting, pond management and much more! Hands-on demonstrations and educational displays by county extension agents and Master Gardeners.
If that is not enough to get you to come, here are some of the things that are actually happening.
What to bring:
An electronic for recycling. Items such as Home and office equipment: CPUs, monitors (color and b/w), laptops, hard drives, keyboards, mice, printers, copiers, scanners, fax machines, adding machines, calculators, telephones, cell and cordless phones, PDAs, pagers and shredders.
Audio visual equipment: TVs, VCRs, stereos, radios, camcorders, CD players, DVD players and cassette players.

Hazardous Household Materials for recycling. These include: Household Cleaners and Polishes, Pesticides and Repellents, Paints and Solvents.
A bucket and shovel for your free compost. There will be a mound of compost available for the public to load up on as much compost as they want!
Lawnmower blade for sharpening. Someone will be on hand to sharpen lawnmower blades so that your lawnmower can run better and longer.
Sample of your soil to get free advice on the health of your soil.
Lastly…. The Lawn Mower Exchange
Trade in your gas powered lawnmower for an electric lawnmower at a discounted price at the Second Annual Lawn Mower Exchange held in the parking lot from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Demonstrations, Lectures and Seminars:
10:00 AM -- Carolina Yards and Neighborhoods Overview-Water Smart Landscaping
11:00 AM -- Pond Management 101
11:00 AM -- The Good, Bad and Ugly...In the Garden: Integrated Pest Management
12:00 PM -- Environmentally Friendly Turf Management
1:00 PM -- The Good, Bad, and Ugly...In the Garden: Integrated Pest Management
11:30 AM -- Saving a Rainy Day: Rainwater Harvesting 101
12:30 PM -- Rain Garden Installation
1:00 PM -- Beautiful Borders: Installing Vegetative Buffers
All Day Long Demonstrations:
Garden Zone:
Secrets to Great Container Gardening
Plant Crimes: Victim or Perpetrator--Tree and Shrub Management
Lasagna Gardening
Proper Fertilizer and Pesticide Application and Safety
Water Zone:
Pervious Hardscaping
Green Roofs
On the Water: Boat Maintenance
Rainwater Cistern Technology
Plant Zone:
Ask a Master Gardener
Wheel of Horticulture
SC Native and Well-Adaptive Plant Sale
Carolina Yard Zone:
Vegetable Gardening
Self-Guided Tours
Compost Zone:
Composting Methods and Demonstrations
Composter Display
Wildlife Zone:
Bird and Butterfly Garden Installation
Kid Zone:
Build-Your-Own Pine Cone Bird feeder
Parsley Planting
Storm Drain Marking
Displays in the Ag Building:
Charleston Water Systems
Community Pride
SC Amphibian, Arachnid and Reptile Society
Charleston County Mosquito Control
Fields to Families
Berkeley County Water and Sanitation
Clemson DPI/Invasive Plants
Dorchester County Recycling
Charleston County Recycling
Berkeley County Recycling
What will be for sale:
Master Gardener Books
Master Gardener plants
Mepkin Abbey Native Plants
Come ready to eat!
The Hanahan Band Boosters will be selling food so come check it out!

As you can see, this is going to be an event filled day. The weather, I hope, is going to co-operate....I think it will. This event has been in the planning stages since February 2009. Please come on out! I look forward to seeing everybody at THE EXPERIENCE!
Happy Growing!
Darren

Man, That's Cold

I received an e-mail from a new friend of mine named Claudia. She also writes a good Blog, Gardening Naturally with Claudia. You can check her blog out at:
http://gardeningnaturallywithclaudia.blogspot.com
She asked me a question that I never really gave much thought to, So I figured it would be a good subject for today's posting. She lives in Zone 5b (-10 to -15 Fahrenheit) Man, That's Cold!! She wanted to know what Citrus would be hardy in her climate. There is not much, BUT, there are some!
With that being said, let me give a few insights. Factors affecting hardiness are of course, minimum temperatures, how long it is, weather before the freeze, soil moisture and wind protection.
I have touched on some of this in other postings, but will revisit them here. Minimum temperature goes without saying, -10 to -15 is pretty cold.


As you can see from the above map, that kind of temperature and colder covers about one fourth of the country. So most of the ones I will list can be grown even further South.
How long the freeze is: One night of freeze may not hurt a plant too much, a week (or longer) could be another story.
The weather before the event: If you have had very cool temperatures and it has been rather consistent, that is a lot better than warm for a few days then a wicked cold spell.
Soil Moisture: Make sure plants are well watered before the event, the wind also falls under here. Cold and wind dry plants out. A dry plant is much more apt to be hurt by a freeze than a well watered one.

Now, as for Citrus that can handle that kind of cold. There is really only one for a Zone 5b. Poncirus trifoliata. It is hardy to about -15F There are two cultivars, a straight one with straight thorns and branches and ones with curved branches and thorns called 'Flying Dragon'.
This is one of the few actual deciduous (loses it leaves) Citrus. The best way to describe the fruit from this tree? I got this from the book 'Hardy Citrus for the Southeast' By Tom McClendon. He writes, "The fruit are edible, meaning that you won't die from eating them". That pretty much is the best description I can come up with other than, if you don't mind the taste of kerosene, this fruit is great! Tom also has uses listed for the Trifoliates: Hybridization, Ornamental and TARGET PRACTICE.
If you are willing to provide a little protection, maybe plant on the South side of your house and very close to a building or wall, you could grow some of these: Hardy to about 5F.
Citrandin (Poncirus X Citrus reticulata)
Citrange (Poncirus X Citrus sinensis)
Citrumelo ( Poncirus X Citrus paradisi)
Nansho Daidai Sour Orange (Citrus taiwanica)
Some of these may be palatable to you. I have actually had a decent Nansho Daidai. I also enjoy Sour Gummy Worms, so take that into consideration.

If you can protect down to about 10 degrees the list gets much better:
Bloomsweet Grapefruit
Yuzu (as seen on Martha Stewart)
Yuzu Hybrids
Nippon Orangequat
Changsha Mandarin
Juanita Tangerine
And actually there are many others.

Down to about 15 degrees and you are getting into the:
Kumquats and their Hybrids (Sunquat, Procimequat, etc.)
Calamandarin
Sour Oranges

Your Satsumas are in the upper teens, I don't recommend pushing these there though. I try to keep them no lower than mid to upper 20's along with:
Sweet Oranges
Meyer Lemon
Grapefruits

Like I said in the beginning, there are a LOT of factors that will effect cold hardiness. There are other steps that you can take to protect them.
Build a mini greenhouse over them. Grow them in Containers. I actually could go on for hours talking about this subject alone. Hopefully this gives you some ideas to try. Finding many of these varieties may prove to be difficult. There are some websites that you might be able to find some of them. Pick a couple and do a Google search. Later, I will do a post on finding some Citrus online, I have some great friends and will give you their websites. That my friends will be for later, for now you have to wait and come back often! LOL
Happy Growing!
Darren