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72 - CAPE GAZETTE, Friday, June 9 - June 15, 2000
G00ARDEN & FARM
"- ---, ...
Grasscyclir00g t)roves
better for }00our lawn
By Jim Neidner
Between April and November,
homeowners spend much of their
free time caring for their lawn.
This means regular mowing, an
activity that some people enjoy as
exercise but most find a chore.
Like it or not, however, mowing
the lawn is part of home mainte-
nance and needs to be done regu-
larly to keep up the value of your
property. While standard practice
used to mean raking the clippings
and putting them in plastic bags
for disposal, the current trend in
lawn care is "grasscycling."
What is "grasscycling"?
Actually, it's not new. It's what
homeowners did for years and is
just now enjoying a revival.
Grasscycling is the natural recy-
cling of grass clippings from your
lawn. Simply put, it means letting
the clippings lie on your lawn
where they can recycle into the
soil. You don't need a special
mower to make grasscycling
work. When you mow, don't use a
catch bag and don't rake the clip-
pings when you're done.
Thirty years ago, it was widely
believed that grass clippings
caused thatch and that removing
them slowed thatch development.
Since then, multiple studies have
shown that thatch is composed of
grassioots, not blades of grass.
There are lots of good reasons
to start grasscycling. Besides
slowing the development of
thatch, grasscycling improves
lawn quality and saves time, work
and money. Consider the follow-
ing:
• Studies conducted with home-
owners who stopped bagging their
clippings found that grasscyclers
spent an average of seven hours
less on yard work during the
grass-cutting season because they
didn't spend any time bagging the
clippings.
• Grasscyclers save money on
fertilizer, trash bags, and reduced
wear and tear on their mowing
equipment.
• Grasscycling does not spread
lawn disease. Disease spores are
present whether or not grass clip-
pings are raked and disposed of.
To learn more about lawn care
and grasscycling, click on
www.ihomeline.com.
Jim Neidner is a national radio
home host and award-winning
builder/remodeler. You can talk to
him online at www.ihomeline.
com.
Leaving grass clippings on your yard is l good for yo:i:?:
Bioteclmology
seminar June 19
The University of Delaware's
College of Agriculture and
Natural Resources "will host a
biotechnology symposium enti-
tled, "Novel Crops: An
Agronomic Future?" from 8-
11:30 a.m., Monday, June 19, at
university's Clayton Hall in
Newark.
The symposium will include a
panel discussion with present and
future leaders of the agricultural
community in the northeastern
United States and eastern Canada.
The general public, the univer-
sity community and those in pri-
vate and public organizations are
invited to attend.
For more information, call 302-
831-1392.
Cape Region,farmers can apply for crop insurance
In an important victory for local farmers, state Sen.
George Bunting (D-Bethany Beach) has teamed with
members of Congress to help secure passage of a
bold new crop insurance program.
The bill will make it easier for local farmers to get
federal assistance and will provide much needed
coverage for specialty crops.
The legislation authorized $8.2 billion in federal
crop insurance premiums, which will increase the
premium share paid by the federal government'from
40 to 59 percent. In addition, it includes an appropri-
ation of $7.1 billion in market loss assistance.
"Agriculture is such a vital part of our local econ-
omy and we owe it to our farmers to make sure they
get the help they need when times are tough,"
Bunting said. "This federal legislation will signifi-
cantly expand the number of Delaware farmers who
are eligible for crop insurance and enable them to get
crucial assistance from the federal government."
The changes were approved by Congress late last
month and are expected to be signed into law by
President Bill Clinton in the near future.
"With the crucial leadership of our regional
Congressional delegations, I think we sent a clear
message to Washington," Bunting said. "When we
work together, we have the capability to aggressive-
ly and effectively pursue our regional agricultural
agenda at the federal level."
A berry as Attierican as the rest of us
When President ED. Roosevelt
addressed the Daughters of the
American Revolution he wanted
to point out that as Americans we
are all a mixture of foreigners, so
he opened his remarks with
"Hello fellow immigrants." Many
of our garden plants, like our-
selves, are often in fact a mixture'
of New World and Old World
genes.
As far back as the Ancient
Greeks, people were eating tiny,
sweet cone-shaped berries. These
berries seemed to be strewn
across the meadows, hence the
English called them "Strewn
berries," today's strawberries.
Colonists discovered America
filled with native wild strawber-
ries that were much larger than
the European berries.
It was the French Captain
Amede Frasier who brought back
to France the wild beach straw-
berry of Chile, "Fragaria chiloen-
sis," to be crossed with the
American strawberry, "Fragaria
virginiana," and the European
wood strawberry, the "fraise de
bois" CFragaria vesca" ). It
worked and the large, hardy mod-
GARDEN JOURNAL
Paul Barbano
ern strawberry is the result.
French strawberries are named in
honor of Captain Frasier,
"Fraiseirs."
Because they bear quickly and
yield quite a bit in a small space,
strawberries mike an excellent
garden plant. Plants should be set
out 12 inches apart in early spring.
Choose a sunny, well-drained site
with a pH between 5.3 and 6.5.
Make sure the crowns are set at
ground level or they might rot.
Fertilize with sea kelp and bone
meal or a good 6-10-10 commer-
cial fertilizer. Avoid heavy nitro-
gen fertilizer that will produce
lots of leaves and fewer berries.
Don't plant strawberries where
you've grown tomatoes, peppers,
potatoes or eggplants because all
of these can spread a disease
called Verticillium Wilt.
There are hundreds of varieties
to choose from, but strawberries
can be roughly classified as
Junebearers, Everbearers and the
newest class, Day Neutral
Everbearers.
The Junebearers are the tradi-
tional berries that produce their
crop all at once, usually over a
few weeks in June or early July.
By planting early, mid-season and
late varieties you can stretch the
Junebearers over the entire straw-
berry season.
"Annapolis" is well suited for
Delmarva. It is one of the earliest
strawberries around, with large
firm berries that are mild, yet
sweet. "Earliglow"is another very
early Junebearer strawberry with
medium to large, very firm fruit
that keeps producing longer than
most early varieties. Earliglow is
very disease resistant.
"Honeoye", a midseason variety,
is considered one of the best. The
large conical fruits are firm, bril-
liant red and sweet. "Honeoye" is
a heavy producer. "Sparkle" is a
favorite late strawberry that is
considered the best for jams and
preserves.
Everbearing strawberries pro-
duce a crop at about the same time
as the Junebearers then set a sec-
ond large harvest towards late fall.
Most everbearers will have some
fruit on them during the entire
summer but with the bulk of their
production coming in two flushes
of June then August.
The old standby everbearer is
"Ozark Beauty" with very large
berries and a distinct sugar sweet
taste. "Ozark Beauty" is deep
rooted so may get by with more
neglect than some other strawber-
ties. It is disease resistant and
productive.
"Fort Laramie" is an everbearer
that will fruit on its unrooted run-
ners so it's great in hanging bas-
kets. "Ogallala" yields a huge
early crop then goes on to keep
producing even in dry spells.
The newest developments in
strawberries are the so:called Day
Neutral Strawberries. As their
name implies, they set fruit
spring, summer and fall without
regards to the amount of sunlight
they receive. Disease resistant
"Tribute" bears huge plump
strawberries. "Tristar" is a day
neutral that sets its biggest crop
last so is good for fall canning. It
has medium size fruit.
Eaten fresh, a handful of straw-
berries will provide you with a
day's supply of Vitamin C, along
with vitamin A, fiber, and miner-
als. They can be poured over that
American Colonial invention, the
shortcake, and made into jams or
frozen. Not bad for a plant that
mixes native and foreign genes.
After all, it was the strawberry
that moved William Butler to
exhort, "Doubtless God could
have made a better berry, but
doubtless God never did."
Paul Barbano writes about gar-i
dening andfa:
in Rehoboth :'leeh <:'itadf
questions or comments to him c/o
the Cape Gazette.