In the Garden with Kenny Heafner: Selecting Lawn Care Services

They say April showers bring May flowers. We should be in good shape then!

article by Kerry Heafner, LSU Ag Center

Let’s get outside!

Lawns are off and running this month and lawn services are out in full force offering chores ranging from routine mowing and trimming to applying various and sundry chemicals. It seems new lawn services are popping up all the time.

That some residents need to hire a lawn service is understandable. Our elderly or infirmed residents, especially, may need to hire a lawn service for regular, routine lawn maintenance. Or, folks who are always on the go due to work and family commitments may find that retaining a lawn service is more convenient than donning the armor and wielding the weaponry as weekend warriors themselves.

As more of these types of small businesses pop up, it’s worth pointing out that their goal is all the same: to be paid. That said, I’m not in any way implying that all, or even any, of these small business are crooked. However, the LSU AgCenter encourages residents to be cautious and treat lawn services as any other work that would be hired out such as plumbing, carpentry, or electrical. Here are some tips:

• Be wary of any business who approaches you first, instead of you doing some homework and approaching them first.
• Always ask for references and take time to follow up with those references before signing a contract.
• If chemicals of any type are applied to your lawn, ALWAYS ask the company to list, by name, ALL chemicals they applied on your invoice. If problems occur, this will greatly help out with detective work. If they don’t or if they refuse to, they should be fired on the spot.
• Always ask to see either a Louisiana landscape horticulture license if landscaping is to be done, a commercial pesticide applicator’s license if chemicals are to be applied, or an arborist’s license if tree work is to be done. Also make sure they are insured should collateral damage occur on either your property or the next door neighbor’s property.
• Try to be home when these services are at work on your property. At the very least, ask a neighbor to be present and observe the work being done. This way, you know the services for which you are being billed have actually been performed.
• Try to hire locally. If a service from two parishes over approaches you, there may be a good reason they’re looking for work in areas besides their home parish! Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Above all, try to do your own lawn and garden work. You’ll definitely save money and it will be time well spent. It’s hard to think of another outdoor activity that affords great exercise and the feeling of self-accomplishment like gardening whether it’s those delicious veggies you grew, that solid green lawn you created, or that ornamental bed that is the envy of the neighborhood.

Okay, sermon over. Now then, I’m dying to tell you this story!

Several days after our Master Gardener seminar back in January, the subject of which was heirloom seeds, a gentleman came in and asked where he could get seeds of the ‘Calhoun Purplehull’ pea. I told him I had never heard of it, that people around here generally grow ‘Pinkeye Purplehull’ or ‘Lady Cream’ peas. He said the Calhoun pea was really popular years ago and it seems to have disappeared. I told the gentleman that he would probably have to find a home gardener who saved seeds and who just happened to still have it. He thanked me and left.

In subsequent days, four or five more folks either came in or called with the same question. After the last person called, I sat at my desk and thought about this. If that many people in just a few days came looking for the same thing, there must be something to this. A mystery!

I posted questions in a couple local gardening groups on social media. A recently retired LSU AgCenter extension agent quickly responded that there had been a ‘Calhoun Crowder’ pea and that our former state fruit specialist had been involved in some of its trials years ago and that our vegetable specialist, Dr. Kiki Fontenot, would know how to contact him and ask him about it. So, a text to Dr. Fontenot yielded a “yes,” there was a ‘Calhoun Crowder’ pea developed by A.C. Miller at the LSU AgCenter’s Calhoun Research Station. In another social media group, someone said the Calhoun pea is extinct and could not be found. This was seemingly confirmed by someone at a feed and seed store in Choudrant. He said the Calhoun pea had gone the way of dinosaurs because it was a viney thing and not very conducive to machine harvesting. That makes sense, except these are home gardeners asking about it, not commercial growers. So, the question of why it seemed to disappear in a relatively short period of time became another question; one for another day.

Out of nowhere, someone who would not be an obvious source messaged me saying there was a 1976 article in The News Star about the Calhoun pea. A quick visit to the library on N. 18th Street yielded pay dirt. An article published in the October 18th, 1976 issue of The News Star featured pea research being conducted at the Calhoun station at the time. And, A.C. Miller himself is pictured in one of the pea plots harvesting purple-hulled field peas. It turns out the Calhoun station, now sitting derelict, was pea-breeding central for a number of years. Several varieties were developed there and released for commercial sales. Also included in the 1976 article is a description of the process Dr. Miller was using to produce his pea crosses, the gory details of which I’ll spare you. I was able to track down the original publication describing the pea and its release to the public in November, 1966. Testing for the ‘Calhoun Purplehull’ began in the mid-1950s. It took a decade’s worth of breeding for Dr. Miller and his colleagues to arrive at a genetically stable variety that exhibited all the traits they considered important such as pod size and shape, disease resistance, and maturity date.

So, the (Calhoun Purplehull) pea is real. Now to find it! I knew who would be the most likely to have it and that was good ole Uncle Sam! Yep. The USDA. A quick search of the germplasm database and voila! There it was, along with the ‘Calhoun Crowder’ pea! They not only had the pea in their seed banks, but they sent me samples, 25 seeds, of both varieties. The goal is to grow them out and get these LSU varieties back into circulation!

Let’s check the calendar:
• May 11th and 12th, Le Tour des Jardins, a garden tour put on by the Northwest Louisiana Master Gardeners in Shreveport. Advance tickets are $10. For more information, call their Master Gardener office at (318) 698-0010. Tickets purchased at any garden on the days of the tour are $15.
• May 18th, Super Saturday at the Children’s Coalition Family Garden, 117 Hall Street in Monroe. Come get your hands dirty!

For advice on how to make your garden thrive, go to the Ag Journal page at www.myarklamiss.com and submit your questions.I’ll answer them every Tuesday on Louisiana Living!