Take a look at our October History for important events that happened this month.  Makes a great trivia game, too!

October 2, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court saw the first African American associate justice as Thurgood Marshall was sworn in.

October 2, 1968, California’s Redwood National Park was established.

October 5, 1986, a plane carrying arms for Nicaraguan rebels was shot down by Nicaraguan Sandinistas. Former U.S. Marine Eugene Hasenfus was captured marking the beginning of the “Iran-Contra Affair.”

October 7, 1985, the Italian passenger ship Achille Lauro was hijacked by PLO terrorists. Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly Jewish wheelchair-bound American, was shot and his body thrown overboard.

October 8, 1998, The U.S. House of Representatives approved a resolution launching an impeachment inquiry of President Bill Clinton with a 258-176 vote. It was the third time the House launched a formal impeachment inquiry of a sitting president. The other two: Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon.

October 14, 1947, the first man to break the sound barrier is U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager.

October 16, 1859,  Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry was seized by abolitionist John Brown and about 20 followers. Brown was captured by U.S. Marines under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.

October 20, 1818, the 49th parallel becomes the border between the U.S. and Canadian.

October 26, 1881, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona occurred.

Enjoy Wells Brothers October History and come see us for all your pet, lawn and garden needs.

The age-old question: Straw vs Hay, what’s the difference? This time of the year we get flooded with questions about using straw versus hay for a given task. Straw is plant stubble from a harvested crop. It’s called straw because it’s hollow. Straw is also a regional product. In North Texas, 99% of the straw is from wheat. The other 1% is typically made from oats. Straw is mainly used for decoration, bedding, erosion control, mulch, and archery backstops. It can also be used as a building material and in composting operations.

Hay is grown as food for livestock. It can be used like straw but is expensive for the task. Most of the hay grown in our area is one of several types of hybrid Bermuda.

If you need either you can pick up straw or hay bales Wells Brothers. Create your autumn lawn display or use it as seating for the hayride or around the bonfire. Just be careful around fire. Straw works great as an insulator for the outside pets. It is not recommended to use straw as equine bedding, as horses may eat it, causing digestive problems. Got bare spots in your yard or around the barn? Put some straw down to keep the mud to a minimum.

Wells Brothers also offers straw bale rental. Straw sells for $9.75 a bale and if you bring it back in sellable condition we refund you $4.00. For a straw bale to be in sellable condition it must be dry (damp is not dry) with no stains and both tie wires intact with the original receipt. Give us a call at 972-424-8516 to find out more about our straw rental program.

Pick up hay bales, straw bales, and other supplies at Wells Brothers. And come springtime, if you have any of those straw bales left, try  Straw bale gardening. We’ve got easy, step by step instructions to plant your most unconventional garden yet!

Cover crop planting time has arrived. There are multitudes of reasons to plant a cover crop. They range from wanting to add green manure (nitrogen) to the soil to resting the gardener. Planting crops that have a nitrogen-fixing ability (legumes) will yield green manure in the spring. Some of the most common legumes are peas, beans, clovers, and vetches. To get the most from these crops you must inoculate the seeds prior to planting. Some inoculants are specific to the type of seed, so make sure you get the correct one. Any excess inoculant you have should be added to the garden soil.

Cereal grains such as wheat, oats, rye and cereal type rye are cover crops that do not require inoculants. Cereal type rye will also trap root nematodes. They have no nitrogen-fixing ability but will help with soil compaction, weed suppression and add a tremendous amount of organic material back into the garden in the spring. All cover crops should be buried when planted.

When spring comes there are three ways to handle the cover crop. One method is to cut back the cover crop and then plant the veggies. The second method is to kill the cover crop with an appropriate herbicide at the recommended rate about a month before you plant your garden. The third is to turn (or till) the entire cover crop into the soil about two weeks before you plant. If you planted a grass type crop, make sure you add nitrogen or molasses.

Wells Brothers Pet, Lawn, and Garden Center has Elbon rye (cereal rye), wheat, oats, Crimson Clover (over and over), Hairy Vetch and Austrian Winter Peas as well as annual ryegrass. We also have the appropriate inoculants for these crops. Give us a try if this is an overseeding year.