February 10, 2010

It's been cold outside and the wind seems to be blowing every day. As I write this, there is a forecast of snow. Spring seems so far away. Maybe its' time to think about having a vegetable garden.

To many people, having a vegetable garden brings up visions of thousands of square feet of plowed land. Yet it doesn't have to be that way. If you own your own home, you probably have a sunny area of lawn. Nothing says that you can't dig up part of the lawn and turn it into a vegetable garden. How big you make the garden is up to you. Last year, I had any number of people come into the garden center and tell me that they were going to dramatically shrink the size of the lawn and in its place put in a vegetable garden. It turned out not to be good for me selling them lawn fertilizer, but it gave them a great crop of vegetables.

A garden doesn't have to be a huge undertaking either. Many people start off in or downsize to condominiums. Many of the condos have decks or patios. It is very easy to grow many types of vegetables in containers. There are varieties of tomatoes that have been bred for growing in containers. A 12 inch flower pot is suitable for these dwarf plants. The plants may be dwarf in size yet they will give you a tremendous yield. Many of you like grape tomatoes. If you buy a package in the supermarket, the tomatoes are relatively expensive. Yet you could plant one grape tomato plant in a container and you would get an unbelievable yield of tomatoes. You can grow peppers, cucumbers, squash and eggplant in containers. Many herbs are well suited to growing in containers. If you don't have deck or patio and only have a small deck on your condo or apartment, you can plant up a window box with leaf lettuce. Herbs will grow well in window boxes too.

Growing even a small amount of vegetables can save you a lot of money on your grocery bill. I had read that a $1. 89 package of tomato seed can yield $200.00 worth of tomatoes in less than 90 days. Try getting that kind of yield out of the stock market!

Another problem that potential gardeners have is that they have poor soil in their yards. There are many companies selling raised bed systems. We sell one at the store that uses recycled plastic to make the "timbers" The kit has the corner braces and hardware that make the system virtually snap in place. You can fill the bed with potting soil or you can buy topsoil and add any additional amendments to bring the soil up to par.

Having a vegetable garden can be as big or as small as you would like it to be. Last year was a lousy year for growing tomatoes. Yet in the years when the weather co-operates, having fresh home grown tomatoes is a joy that many people anticipate. If you haven't tried growing a vegetable garden, make a promise to yourself to give it a try this year.

Well, that's all for this week. I'll talk to you again next week.

February 3, 2010

Last week, I had told you about the differences in the quality of soil in your gardens. I had explained the different types of soil. Knowing that you have a clay soil or a sandy soil is important. Knowing what you need to do to “fix” those types of soils is just as important.

Let me start by saying that sometimes a sandy soil can be a good thing. If you are growing root vegetables i.e., carrots, having a sandy soil makes it easier for the carrots to grow long and straight. Certain perennials prefer a well drained soil. Some perennials like a moisture retentive soil. In this case some clay in the soil helps to keep those plants happy. I guess that what I am saying is that often the extremes of soils make it hard to grow plants. If you have a soil that consists mainly of sand, then water will drain away quickly. To keep plants growing properly, you will need to do a lot of watering. If you have ever had to dig up a soil that will consists mainly clay, you know what a back breaking chore it is.

If you have the extremes of soils, you may be better off digging out all of that soil and replacing it with a good quality loam. I know that this can be an expensive proposition if you have a large yard. Yet over the many years I have been in this business, I have seen people try the least expensive method. As an example, you may have a lawn that is growing just marginally. You discover that you have 2 inches of loam on top of a foot of sandy soil. For a lawn to grow properly, you need 6 inches of good quality loam. Many people want to try the option of spreading a quarter to a half inch of soil on top of the existing soil. Sure enough, the grass seed that is put down will begin to grow but eventually the grass dies out again. I suppose after 12 years of putting down a half inch of soil, you wind up with 6 inches of soil. It sure seems like using that method; you will spend more money and more of your time on trying to get that lawn to grow. If you started from scratch and removed that top 6 inches of soil and replaced it with 6 inches of good loam, you would have a good lawn in the first year.

Let’s take some time to discuss what you can do if your soil is not one of the extreme soils. There are things you can add to soils to make the soil a better quality soil.

If your soil is on the sandy side, you can add compost or peat moss to the soil to improve the moisture holding capacity as well as the level of organic matter in the soil. Adding one or both of these ingredients to a sandy soil will make a big difference in how well your plants will grow.

A soil that has a clay texture is a little harder to deal with if you want to get it up to snuff. If you add horticultural gypsum to the soil it will help to break up the particles of the clay soil. You may also find that you can add some coarse sand to a clay soil to help to physically break up the structure of the soil. Using a combination of gypsum and sand often is the best answer to fixing up a soil that has a fair amount of clay in the soil.

Knowing the type of soil you have in your yard and adding any necessary amendments to a poorer soil will go a long way to make gardening a better experience.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

January 27, 2010

Over the years, I have talked to many customers who have problems growing plants in their garden or people who have trouble growing a nice lawn. I have found that after asking a few questions that many times the problem is with the quality of the soil in their gardens or lawn. Not all gardeners are blessed with having a high quality loam in their yard. In some cases, there is a quality loam but there just isn't sufficient depth of a good quality soil. Time and again I have told customers that it is nearly impossible to grow a good lawn if they have only 2 inches of topsoil in their yard.

The question always seems to arise over what makes for a good quality topsoil. One thing that you should know is that a black colored soil isn't necessarily a good quality topsoil or loam. ( In this area the terms topsoil and loam are used interchangeably.) A black colored soil can still contain a lot of clay. If you have ever tried to work with a clay soil, you will know that it is not a fun experience. Let me tell you what you are looking for in a soil that you have in your yard or are considering purchasing this spring.

Figuring out the quality of the soil you have or the quality of the soil you are going to purchase is literally at your fingertips. You can feel a good quality soil by rubbing the soil between your fingertips.

When the soil in your garden dries out a bit in the spring, pick some of it up and place it on two of your fingers. Use your thumb to rub the soil between your fingers. When you do this, what do you feel? Does the soil feel scratchy? This would mean that there is a lot of sand in the soil. On the other hand, if the soil feels very sticky or forms ribbons of soil when you use your thumb to spread the soil, then you have a lot of clay in your soil. Having sand or clay , in small amounts, in your soil is not a bad thing. A good quality loam will probably have some or both of these ingredients in the soil. Having an excess of either of these ingredients can cause problems in growing a vegetable or flower garden. Having an excess of either of these ingredients makes it almost impossible to grow a good lawn.

A quality soil is necessary for growing either a lawn or a garden. Another factor that comes into play is the depth of the quality soil in your yard. More on that topic next week. If you have had trouble growing a good lawn or raising good vegetables or flowers, the problem is probably with the soil.

Once you know the quality of the soil in your yard, there are things you can do to improve the soil that you have existing in your yard. More on that subject next week.

Well, that's all for this week. I'll talk to you again next week.

January 20, 2010

Over the last 2 weeks, a few questions have come up about the columns I wrote concerning houseplants. Let me answer a few of those questions.

One of the questions that several people asked me concerns the browning of the edges of some houseplants. Browning of the leaves, particularly along the edge of the leaves, usually indicates a build up of salt in the leaves. The reason that salt builds up in the leaves is due to the build up of salt in the soil. As the level of salt builds in the soil, the plants take up that salt along with the water that the plants take up from the soil. As the salt gets into the leaves, the salt pulls moisture from the tissue of the leaves. As the moisture is pulled into the salt, the edges of the leaves dry due to the lack of moisture reaching the edge of the leaf. This lack of moisture along the edge of the leaf causes the tissue to dry out and die. The brown or in some cases black color you see along the edge of the leaf is the dead tissue of the leaf.

The next logical question is how does that salt get into the soil. If you fertilize your plants, you may be surprised to learn that many fertilizers contain a fair amount of salts in the fertilizer. Even more surprising to people is learning that there is to some degree, salt that is dissolved in our water. The amounts in our water can vary from town to town. In many cases, there isn’t a lot of salt in the water. Yet over time, that salt in the water can build up in the soil.

You could control this problem by not fertilizing your plants and not watering your plants. These aren’t really good options if you want your plants to remain alive. The key to reducing salts in the soil is to properly water your plants. When you water your plants, you want to add enough water to the soil so that water drains out of the bottom of the pot. The water that drains out of the bottom of the pot will have a certain amount of salt in that water. This salt is usually the salt that is in the soil. Once the water has drained out of the pot, make sure to empty that water out of the saucer. If you leave that water in the saucer, it will be re-absorbed back into the soil. Over time, watering this way will flush out the salts that are in the soil.

Another problem that can occur with houseplants, during the winter months, is leaves dying due to a lack of humidity. Many years ago, I read a story that said the humidity levels in a home during the winter are lower than the humidity levels in the Sahara desert. Watering your plants doesn’t really raise the humidity level too much. Over watering your plants in the winter can actually kill your plants. An easy way to raise the humidity level around your plants is to mist water on the leaves of the plant. You can buy misting bottles at your garden stores. Once or twice a day, you give the leaves a spray of water on the leaves. This will provide the humidity that the leaves need. There are some plats that do not like water on their leaves. African Violets would be one of those plants. You may also find that having to go to work gets in the way of being able to mist your plants! You can get around this by creating humidity trays and setting your plants on the trays. To create a humidity tray, you will need a container that will hold water. The tray should be a couple of inches deep. Fill the tray with marble chips or other fine rock. Fill the tray with water to within ½ inch of the top of the rock. Place your plant pots onto the rocks. As the water evaporates from the container, it creates a cloud of humidity around your plants. If you keep the container filled with water to within ½ inch of the surface of the rocks, your plants will get the humidity they need. Make sure that you do not overfill the container with water. It is very important that the bottom of the pots sit on dry rocks. If the pots constantly sit on wet rocks, the soil in the pots will stay constantly wet and eventually the roots of the plants will rot.

Well, hopefully that answered some of the questions you had about houseplants.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

January 13, 2010

Last week, I had talked to you about houseplants. One of the things that I had mentioned was that houseplants can help to clear pollutants from the air indoors. A few people have asked me what type of plants to use, so I thought I would share a little more information with you.

Dr. Bill Wolverton conducted a study for NASA on ways to clean air in space vehicles. Wolverton"s study found that plants could filter 87 percent of volatile organic compounds such as ammonia, formaldehyde and benzene. He also found that plants filtered out tobacco smoke as well. Once the results of this study were released, many people started talking about using houseplants to reduce pollution that can occur indoors from many different sources. It has been stated by the EPA that indoor air can be 2 to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air. If people used more houseplants in their homes and offices, there would be less problems with indoor pollution.

I had talked earlier about tobacco smoke as an indoor pollutant. Benzene is one component of tobacco smoke. Ferns will absorb much of the benzene from the air. Some of the other houseplants that are good at filtering out airborne pollutants are Spathiphyllum, dracaena, philodendrons, golden pothos, spider plants, palms, schefflera, anthuriums, dieffenbachia, and probably the most surprising to many people are orchids.

Houseplants are also good at removing mold spores from the air. We have talked for years about how trees can take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the air. Houseplants can do the same thing in your home or office. Houseplants can also help to remove dust particles from the air. All in all, having houseplants in your home or office can improve the overall "health" of the air that you breath indoors.

The study recommends that you use 2 medium size houseplants for every 100 sq. ft. of room size.

Having houseplants in your home can make your home look better at the same time that you are improving the air quality of your home.

Well, that's all for this week. I'll talk to you again next week. January 6, 2010

January is a month when gardeners get really bored. It’s a little early to be starting plants from seed. You definitely aren’t doing any gardening outside. What’s a gardener to do at this time of the year?

When I first started working in lawn and garden in the mid 70’s, houseplants were all the rage. Almost everyone had a few houseplants growing in their home. Yet, over the years, houseplants became kind of passé for most people. I have noticed, over the last 2 years, that people appear to be interested again in houseplants. Houseplants are more than a way to keep you occupied during the winter months. Research has shown that houseplants filter out many of the pollutants that are in the air in our homes. This, in and of itself, is a good reason to have some plants growing in your home. When you select houseplants for your home, you need to know what types of light conditions are required for the houseplants that you wish to have in your home. The majority of what we call houseplants doesn’t necessarily need to be in direct sunshine all day long. Many of the plants that we call hanging plants are actually groundcovers in tropical areas. These plants actually grow under the heavy canopy of tall trees. In their native environment, they don’t get a lot of sunshine. They do get a lot of bright light. Many houseplants grow well in bright light conditions. They don’t necessarily need to be directly in a window. They are generally happy being a few feet away from the window. There are also plants that will grow in very low light conditions. They don’t even need to be close to a window. The artificial light in our homes is often enough light for certain plants. Yes, there are plants that need to be in as much sunshine as you can get for the plants. The point to all of this is that, regardless of the light conditions in your home, there are houseplants that you can successfully grow in your home.

For the majority of gardeners, the biggest problem with houseplants is in trying to figure out how much water a plant needs each week. When people buy houseplants at our store, they will generally ask, “ How many times a week should I water this plant?” The answer is that there is no set schedule on how often you water the plants. In the winter months, most houseplants need to be kept on the dry side of things. Yes, some plants will be very unhappy if you let them go dry. The reality is, that over - watering houseplants is the number one reason that houseplants die. You can buy a device called a moisture meter that will tell you how moist the soil is around the roots of your plants. You can also use a very standard human issued device called your finger. Take your finger and press it into the soil. For the majority of houseplants, you need to water the plant when the soil feels dry to the touch about 1 inch below the surface. Sure there are differences in plants requirements for water, but this rule works well. Ultimately, you will find that your plants dry out based on the amount of heat and humidity in your home. How often you water in your home will be different than how often someone else will need to water their plants. Over time, you will know how long you can go between applications of water.

Growing houseplants can be a fun thing to do year round. As much as some people believe that they can’t grow houseplants, it is often the case that people try to grow houseplants under the wrong growing conditions for the plant. If you haven’t gotten into growing houseplants, maybe this winter is the time for you to start.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

November 4, 2009

The leaves are dropping off the trees and the trees are taking on their winter look. Yuck! Time to rake the leaves.

Speaking of leaves, I was telling you about composting the leaves in your yard. If you mix some of the grass clippings in with the leaves, it greatly speeds up the composting process. If you think forward to spring, you have lots of grass clippings, but very few leaves to mix in to help speed up the composting process. This fall, get some heavy - duty plastic bags and fill the bags with leaves. Store the bags near your compost pile. In the spring, you can take some of the leaves out of the bags and mix them in with the grass clippings. Add in some compost activator and you will have a compost pile that will be humming along and producing finished compost in no time at all.

This past weekend, a few people asked me if it was too late to plant spring flowering bulbs. The answer is that as long as the ground hasn’t frozen, you can still plant spring flowering bulbs. If it appears that we are heading into a possibility of freezing ground, you can always hurry up and plant the bulbs and then apply a 3-inch layer of mulch on top of the ground. This will slow down the freezing of the ground and allow the bulbs more time to develop a root system before the ground completely freezes.

Another question that has come up is whether it is too late to apply lime to your lawn, flowerbeds or vegetable garden. You can apply lime any time the ground is not frozen. Even if the ground freezes shortly after the lime is applied, it will continue to work as soon as the ground thaws in the spring.

The cool and rainy weather we have had has proved to be a bonus for all those people who planted late vegetable crops of greens and other cool season vegetables. The crops have grown well and the harvest has been steady for most people. If you didn’t get your fall crops planted this year, make a note to try it next year.

Many of you have brought your houseplants back inside for the winter. If you haven’t done so already, make sure to spray those plants to control any insects that may have hitched a ride inside. If you give insects a chance to multiple inside your home, you will have a major insect infestation on your plants in no time at all.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

October 21, 2009

We have already felt the chilly wind that signals the arrival of late fall. It may be October, but the last week has suggested November weather. The light snow and the strong winds reminds us that that winter will eventually arrive whether we like it or not!

The blowing wind is just a foreshadowing of what we always get in the winter. Winter brings us the strong and drying winds that blow in from the north and or west. The drying winds dry out our skin whenever we are outside for any long period of time. Imagine how it must be to be a plant that must survive those drying winds. Yet our plants do survive outside. They take up water in the fall and store that water in the leaves, twigs and branches. Once the ground freezes, the plants have no way to bring up any additional water. The water that is stored is the water the plants have to lose through those leaves, twigs and branches. Most of our native plants are well adapted to the rigors of our winters. Yet, we have many plants that we use in our landscape that don’t have the evolution to survive without some help from us. These plants would include rose bushes, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, azaleas, holly, boxwood and many other broadleaf evergreens. Yes, there are many winters when these plants survive and spring back to life with the arrival of warmer weather. However, there are many winters where we see damage from the wind come the arrival of spring. In severe winters, we can identify the arrival of spring by the appearance of many dead plants that dried out due to the winter wind damage.

It is hard to know what the winter will dish out to us. We can look at long- range weather reports. We can check what the almanac is predicting for us. Ultimately, we prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It is up to you to prepare your plants for the winter’s drying winds.

Luckily, Mother Nature has provided us with plenty of rain this fall. This allows the plants to take up the water that they need. If the rain stops, you will need to water the damage prone plants that I have listed earlier in the column. But even with all of the rain, it only takes a few months of very strong winter winds to remove all of that stored water. You can help the plants to conserve water by lessening their exposure to the wind.

The tried and true way to cut down on wind damage is to wrap the plants with burlap. You can buy rolls of burlap at our store. The burlap is wrapped around the plants and secured with twine. In very windy areas, it is advisable to put some wooden stakes into the ground around the plants and then wrap the burlap around the stakes and secure the burlap with twine. The stakes can do a better job of helping to hold the burlap in place. Never wrap your plants in plastic. On a sunny winters’ day, the sun will warm up the plants and help to speed up moisture loss. Burlap naturally “breathes” allowing wind to gently pass through and will prevent the build-up of heat.

Some people don’t like the look of burlap-covered shrubs. Instead of applying burlap around the shrubs, you can spray the plants with an anti-desiccant spray. This is a spray that is a wax that is mixed with water. The spray mixture is applied to the leaves and branches of the plant. The spray must be applied when the temperatures are above 40 degrees and the spray must be able to dry during the daylight hours. This combination of temperature and daylight allows the wax to properly set up on the leaves and branches. By applying this spray to your plants, you can cut down on the moisture loss due to the wind by 30 to 50%. This waxy coating helps the plants to conserve that all-important moisture. The anti-desiccant spray comes in a ready to use spray bottle. It also comes in a concentrated form that you can mix with water and spray onto your plants. If you have more than 4 plants to spray, buying a concentrate will save you lots of money.

Sad to say, but winter is coming soon. You need to prepare your plants for the drying winds of winter. Take some time soon to prepare your plants and you will not have to see the arrival of spring signaled by the death of your plants.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

October 14, 2009

Since we have had to pull out the winter coats, there is no denying that fall is creeping towards winter. Now is the time to get your yard ready for winter.

If you have planted any fruit trees this past season, they will need to be protected from the winter. The bark of fruit trees and any of the related flowering ornamental trees are prone to damage from fluctuation in temperatures. In the winter months, the sun warms up the bark of these trees. As the sun sets, there is a rapid drop in the air temperature. This sudden change in temperature can cause the bark to crack. To prevent this problem, you should be wrapping the trunk with tree wrap. The tree wrap is a thick paper that is wrapped around the trunk of the tree. This cover will slow down the drop in temperature of the tree bark. This will prevent the splitting of the bark. The tree wrap will also act as a barrier that will keep rabbits and mice from chewing on the bark of the tree.

As I write this column, the temperature is around 31 degrees. In all likelihood, this means we all have had a frost in our yards. Frost will kill off all of the annual flowers and all of the warm weather vegetable plants. Frost will kill the foliage on many perennials. This means that it is time to pull out the dead annuals and vegetable plants. If the plants were infected with fungus diseases, you do not want to put them into the compost pile. In many cases, the compost pile will not heat up enough to kill off the remaining spores of the fungus diseases. Dead foliage from your annuals, vegetable plants and perennials that have no fungus problems can be placed into your compost pile. If you don’t have a compost pile, you can start one now. It is a good way to recycle dead plants into fantastic organic matter. It is also a good way to dispose of all of the leaves that will be falling off your trees. If you don’t have room for a compost pile in your yard, you can always set up a compost bin. Most of the compost bins, particularly the spinning types can turn garden waste into compost in as little as 60 days. Once the vegetable garden is pulled up, you should be applying a cover crop of winter rye. The rye seed will sprout even in the cold weather. The root system of the winter rye will hold the soil in place, preventing the winter wind from stripping the topsoil off the garden. The winter rye will also produce many blades of rye that can be turned into the garden in the spring. This foliage will decompose and add lots of organic matter to your soil.

Lawns need to be fertilized in the fall. The so-called fall or winter fertilizers stimulate root growth that will in turn produce lots of new blades of grass in the spring. Fall is also an excellent time of the year to apply lime to your lawn. Lime neutralizes the acidity in the soil. New England soils are becoming more acidic each year. If you do not apply lime to your lawn, the acid soil will prevent your lawn from growing properly. On the other hand, weeds grow very well in an acid soil. By applying lime now, you will be giving the lime time to change the Ph of the soil. By spring, the acidity will be neutralized and your grass will be growing at its full potential.

Fall is a time when your plants take up water and store it in the twigs and branches. This stored water will eventually be pulled out of the plant by the dry winter winds. This stored water will prevent the wind from killing the plant. If Mother Nature does not provide rain each week, you must be watering your trees and shrubs each week until the ground freezes. If the plants don’t get a chance to take up that needed water, you will wind up with damaged or dead plants in the spring.

Well, that’s all for this week. Next week, I’ll be telling you more things you need to be doing in your yard to prepare it for winter. I’ll talk to you again next week.

September 23, 2009

As September rolls to a close, we have to begin to think about the dreaded W word. Yes, it isn’t too early to begin to think about winter.

Eventually we will get a frost that will kill off all of the vegetation. A frost will kill off many of the vegetables in your garden. When this happens, it is time to pull up the dead plants. Any of the plants that were diseased should be thrown away and not added to the compost pile. These plants will break down in the compost pile, but unless the temperature during the composting process gets high enough, you run the risk of disease organisms surviving in your compost. There is no sense in taking that chance after all of the problems facing most vegetable gardeners this season. If the plant material was not diseased, add it to the compost pile. As you clean up make sure to pull up any stems that may remain in the soil. Insects can over winter in those stems left in the garden.

Once the vegetable garden is cleaned up, add some lime to the soil. This will help to change the Ph of the soil to a more neutral level. A more neutral Ph level will allow your plants to grow better and to make better use of the fertilizer that you use in the garden. Once you have applied the lime, it is a good idea to apply the seed of a cover crop. A cover crop will germinate and its roots will hold the soil in place over the winter. Without the use of a cover crop, the wind can blow away layers of topsoil. The most commonly used cover crop used around here is winter rye. As the winter rye seed sprouts, it puts up blades that look like grass. Over time, this grassy growth will form a dense mat over your garden. In the spring, the winter rye is turned into the soil. This will add a tremendous amount of organic matter into the garden.

Perennial gardens will need to be cut back after the first frost. It can also be done now if you have the time. You can leave any of your late flowering perennials so that you can enjoy those late flowers of summer. Once you are done with your clean up, you should add some lime to the soil. It would also be a good idea to add some superphosphate to the soil. Superphosphate adds phosphorous to the soil. Perennials use lots of phosphorous to form flower buds and to help with the development of a strong root system. Once the ground has frozen, you should apply a 3-inch layer of mulch over the perennial beds. This will help to prevent damage to the roots of the perennials caused by the alternating freezing and thawing of the soil during the winter.

Your lawn will continue to grow into the fall. By this time of the season, many of you are sick of mowing the lawn. However, if you don’t keep up with the mowing, the blades of grass will get very long and tend to flop over during the winter months. These long blades of grass, lying on the ground will lead to the development of fungus diseases on the lawn during the late winter. As hard as it may be, you will need to keep up with the mowing until the ground freezes or the blades of grass stop growing.

During the fall, many plants take up moisture through the roots and store that moisture in the twigs and stems of the plant. This allows the plants to lose moisture to the drying winter winds. Without this extra stored moisture, the plants would dry out and die. The soil in our area is very dry at this time. You should be watering those plants that need to take up extra water. This would include rose bushes and all of your broadleaf evergreens. If we don’t get a soaking rain each week, you will need to water these plants once a week until the ground freezes.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

September 16, 2009

In the fall of the year, the temperatures are cooling, yet the soil is warmer than the spring. The difference in nighttime and daytime temperature causes dew to settle over night. These conditions make fall an ideal time to apply grass seed to your lawn.

Summer can be tough on a lawn. Weeds and insects can kill off patches of grass. Even a little bit of neglect can cause grass to thin out. Whatever the reason, fall is an ideal time to seed your lawn. However, the clock is ticking if you want to repair your lawn with grass seed. A general rule of thumb is that you should have the grass seed sown by the end of September. This allows time for the grass seed to sprout and to get established before the soil freezes for the winter. Truthfully, there have been some years when you could sow seed later in the fall and have Mother Nature delay the freezing of the soil. If you have a crystal ball that can predict the weather, go by what it says. Otherwise, stick with the odds and get that grass seed planted by the end of the month.

If you are patching spots in your lawn, you will need to loosen up the soil to a depth of 2 inches. This allows the roots of the grass seed to easily penetrate the soil. If the soil is very hard packed, you should add topsoil or compost and work it into the soil. Again, this will make it easier for the roots to get established in the soil. In my opinion, just adding ¼ inch of soil on top of hard pack soil is a waste of time and money. If it isn’t mixed in with the soil, the soil will pack down again and you will be re-seeding those areas again next fall. After you have loosened up the soil, add some lime to the soil and some grass seed starter fertilizer. This type of fertilizer helps to promote strong root growth. When you think about it, what make for a good lawn? The answer is a massive root system that can put up new blades of grass year after year. Once all of the soil preparation is done you can put down your seed.

If you are going to seed a new section of lawn, you need to make sure that you have sufficient depth of soil to allow the roots to fully develop. For the best lawn, you need 6 inches of good loam. If you are willing to keep up with the watering, you might get by with 4 inches. Since installing a new lawn should be a one-time project, it is best to go for the 6 inches of soil. Once the soil is down, add lime and the seed starter fertilizer. Rake both of these items into the soil. Roll the soil to get it slightly compacted. Re- rake the soil to get it level and then apply the grass seed.

The choice the type of grass seed you use is an important decision. If you look at a display of grass seed in a store, there will be all types of seed mixtures. The best mix is, as silly as it sounds, is the mix that will grow the best in the conditions that exist in your lawn.

When choosing a grass seed mix, the factors that you need to consider are light conditions, soil quality and the amount of wear and tear from humans and pets that will occur on the lawn. If the lawn area will be in the shade most of the day, then a dense shade mixture is the best type to use. If you have a mixture of sun and shade conditions, have 6 inches or more of good soil and there will be only random amounts of foot traffic, than a sun and shade mixture will be the best choice. If you have lesser amounts of topsoil, or have poorer quality soil and/or there will be a lot of foot traffic on the area, then a turf type tall fescue mixture is the correct mixture to use.

Once the seed is down, you need to keep the soil moist at all times. If you were patching small areas in an existing lawn, the dew that settles in the morning may be all water that you need. If the area is a large area that can be exposed to sun and wind that will dry the soil, you will have to water several times a day. The whole key to watering a seeded lawn is to keep that top layer of soil moist at all times. This evenly moist condition helps the grass seed to sprout in about 14 days. Once the seed has sprouted, you will, over a period of a few weeks, cut back on the frequency of the application of water.

Fall is the best time of the year to apply seed to your lawn. You get two growing seasons before the heat of the summer. This allows the roots more time to get established before the heat arrives next summer. However, the window of opportunity to seed a lawn is closing. It is time to get planting!

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

September 9, 2009

It has been a rough year for your lawn. After the winter, the moles had dug tunnels all over the lawn. Spring rains led to fungus diseases. Summer heat dried the lawn. All the while, most of us forgot to fertilize the lawn. September begins the start of one of the most important time of growth for your lawn. Let me explain why this is so.

As the cool temperatures of fall arrive, your lawn begins another time of rapid growth. Eventually, the weather gets really cold and the lawn goes to sleep for the winter. At least this is what we thought happened to our lawns. Researchers began to look closely at what happens to a lawn in the fall. After years of studying the growth of a lawn in the fall, they discovered that once all of the top growth slowed down in October, there was a lot of root growth going on. The roots that grow in late fall are the roots that have the potential to push up many new blades of grass in the spring. Researchers looked at ways to optimize the growth of these roots. After all, if you could get more root growth in the fall, than you would get many more new blades of grass in the spring. More blades of grass led to a thicker lawn that could actually force out newly emerging weeds. Experiments on how to maximize this root growth led to the following formula for the best root growth in the fall.

Before root growth could really begin in the fall, the grass needed to put up new blades of grass in the fall. This new growth helped to produce food to repair damage to roots caused by summer growing conditions. To achieve this, an application of a high nitrogen fertilizer in early September would give the nutrients necessary for new blades of grass. In about 6 weeks after the application of the high nitrogen fertilizer, an application of a fertilizer high in phosphorous and potassium allowed for the development of all of the new roots that would produce those new blades of grass in the spring.

This should be telling you that for a better lawn, now is the time to apply a high nitrogen fertilizer to your lawn. After you apply the fertilizer, you should water the lawn to release the fertilizer into the soil.

The roots of the lawn will take up lawn fertilizer as long as the soil is not too acidic. If there is a high amount of acidity in the soil, the fertilizer gets bound up in the soil and the roots cannot take up that fertilizer. To prevent this from happening, it is important to keep the Ph of the soil at about 6.5. In New England, this usually means applying lime each year to keep the Ph in that range. Fall is an ideal time to apply lime to your lawn. Lime does take time to work and by applying it in the fall, the Ph can change before that period of rapid growth in the spring. If you didn’t apply lime in the spring, or if you didn’t apply enough in the spring, now would be a good time to apply lime to your lawn.

Early September means the hatching of all of the eggs laid by the Japanese beetles. What emerge from those eggs are the grubs that eat the roots of your lawn. If you apply a grub control now, you will kill those grubs before they have time to do major damage to the roots of your lawn.

September is also a good month to start a new lawn or to repair any damage to an existing lawn. More about seeding your lawn next week.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

September 2, 2009

Mentally, it is so difficult to write the word September. But, September it is and the vegetable gardens should still be giving you a bounty of fresh vegetables.

For some gardeners, this years’ vegetable garden has yielded dismal returns. Some people have had to pull up all of the tomato plants. Fungus diseases have ruined squash and cucumber plants. Beans have rotted on the plant.

If you have had to pull up plants and now have empty space in your vegetable garden, there are plants that you can grow from seed that will give you fresh vegetables well into the fall.

Radishes are one of the fastest growing crops that you can grow from seed. Once planted, you can expect a harvest in as little as 24 days. You can plant a short row, then wait a week and plant another short row. By doing this over the next month, you can get a long harvest of fresh radishes.

There are many leafy greens that can be planted at this time of the year. Mache or corn salad is a mild flavored green that can be eaten fresh or cooked like spinach. It is extremely cold tolerant. It survives and grows even in freezing temperatures. Speaking of spinach, there are varieties that are well suited to fall planting. One variety, Lavewa, will give you a harvest in 45 days. A nice thing about this spinach is that the leaves are not as crinkly as some spinach, making easier to clean the leaves.

There are all types of lettuce that you can plant at this time of the year. Most of them are leaf varieties. Leaf varieties do not produce the traditional “head” that we associate with lettuce. Rather, you get a harvest of lettuce leaves over a long period of time. One of my favorites is a variety called Red Sails. The green leaves are tinged with red, giving it a nice color in salads. It has a great taste and will yield in 45 days. Salad Bowl is another variety that has been around for years. It too has a great flavor and will yield in 50 days.

There is a type of greens that is called micro greens. Micro greens are usually a mix of plants that are harvested when the leaves are small. You will find all kind of mixes. One variety that we sell from a seed company called Botanical Interests, has Beets, Pak Choy, Cabbage, Kohlrabi and Swiss Chard. You can pay a small fortune for a small package of these greens in the supermarket. They can also be easily grown in containers and can be grown indoors during the winter!

There are several varieties of Kale that can be planted at this time of the year. Red Winter kale as tender leaves that go well with other salad greens. You can expect a harvest in about 50 days. Chinese Kale is closer to broccoli in its growth and it flavor. The flavor is sweeter, which is a definite plus for those who do not like broccolis’ strong flavor. Leaves, stalks, and florets can all be eaten. It should be planted now because it needs 60 to 70 days to mature.

Another member of the broccoli family is Bok Choy. You may have had this in stir-fry dishes served in Asian restaurants. It has spinach like leaves but also has white stems that remain crunchy after cooking. Young leaves are used as micro greens. You can expect a harvest in about 55 days.

If you plant these crops in a cold frame, you can expect a harvest over a much longer period of time.

I would like to thank the folks at Botanical Interests for providing some of the information needed for me to give you the tips on seeds you can use for planting at this time of the year.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

August 26, 2009

Late August is a time when you may think that there is nothing to do in the garden. As in all things to do with gardening, if it isn’t winter, there is always something to do in the garden.

If you have bearded iris in your gardens, late August is the right time to divide the plants. This is an important thing to do for your irises. Over a period of 3 years, irises will develop many new rhizomes. The rhizomes are the sweet potato looking growth that sits on the surface of the soil. The rhizome is in many ways like a bulb. Food is stored in the rhizome. The leaves make the food that is stored in the rhizome. If too many rhizomes try to grow in an area, each one will suffer from lack of food. This will cause less flowering and make the rhizome more likely to be attacked by an insect called the iris borer. This insect lays eggs on the rhizome. The eggs hatch out and the larvae tunnel into the rhizome. The larvae spend their life eating and tunneling through the rhizome. Eventually, the larvae have riddled the rhizome with tunnels. This, of course, makes for a rhizome that struggles to survive.

When you divide the rhizomes, it is highly likely that the iris borer has infected the oldest rhizomes. These old rhizomes are the ones that are located in the center of the bed of rhizomes. These rhizomes should be discarded. Along the outer edge of the bed, you will find smaller size rhizomes. These are usually free from any attack by the borer. The newer rhizomes are the ones that you will be replanting in your garden.

Once you have the entire bed dug up, use a sharp knife to cut off the newest rhizomes. Each rhizome should have two to three leaf clusters attached to the rhizome. For ease of handling, you can cut the leaves back to about three inches above the rhizome. When you are ready to plant the new rhizomes, you should work some bulb food into the soil. You should also dust the cuts on the rhizome with bulb dust. The dust will help to prevent any rot from entering the cuts that were made when you separated the small rhizomes from the rest of the bed. The rhizome is planted with half of the rhizome above ground and half below ground. Space the rhizomes about 6-12 inches apart. Water each rhizome as needed to help them to establish new roots.

The older rhizomes should be discarded. Make a mental note to divide the irises again in three years. By next spring, you should be enjoying a great display of irises.

In late August, your tomato plants will have grown and should have produced many flowers that have turned into many tomatoes. These tomatoes will eventually ripen and even this year, with all of the early rain, you will get fresh tomatoes. Your tomato plants will continue to produce flowers and to set new tomatoes. The problem is, the flowers that set now will not have enough time to produce ripe tomatoes before the frost hits. You should be removing any new flower clusters to prevent them from forming new tomatoes. This will allow the tomato plant to use all of its energy to ripen the tomatoes that are already on the plant.

As your tomato plants try to ripen all of those green tomatoes, they will need a lot of potassium to do this task. Potassium is the third number that you will find on the fertilizer package. The potassium level should be relatively higher than the first number on the package. The tomato plants should be fertilized on a regular schedule right up to the time of the first frost. This will allow your tomato plants to have the potassium that they need to ripen all of those green tomatoes.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

August 19, 2009

The heat and humidity have really set in this week. Maybe this hot weather will help to ripen up all of those green tomatoes on your tomato plants.

Mid August is the time to do a few chores that can be rewarding and some chores that will make life easier and also save you money in the long run.

By mid August, there are usually a few empty spots in the vegetable garden. It may be where the beets and radishes were planted and harvested. It may also be where the peas were planted. Now would be a good time to replace some of those harvested crops with new crops. I have had good luck planting peas at this time of the season. The peas will grow and mature in the cool weather of September and October. Beets can also be planted now. The same hold true for many of the lettuce varieties. There is no sense in letting that space lie dormant when you can plant some vegetables that will mature in the fall.

The Japanese Beetles have created quite a bit of havoc in many yards. The adult females are laying eggs in your lawn. Those eggs will hatch out as white grubs that can eat many of the roots of your lawn. If you apply a season long grub control now, you will kill off many of those grubs before they have a chance to damage the roots. If you prefer a more organic approach, Milky Spore is a host specific bacterium that kills the grubs of Japanese Beetles and Rose Chafers. Once applied, this bacterium will continue to control grubs for up to 20 years.

One of my favorite perennials is coming into bloom. If you don’t have a hardy hibiscus or two in your yard, you are missing out on one of the most spectacular of the late summer blooming perennials. Each flower may last only a day, but when the buds unfurl and show a flower that can be as much as 6 inches in diameter, you know you will want to have this perennial. Mature plants will produce 100’s of flowers over the course of the summer and fall. Depending on the variety, flower colors can be red, light pink, dark pink and shades of lavender. Hardy hibiscus is slow to come out of dormancy in spring. It is not unusual for them to show no signs of growth until Memorial Day. However, once they do start to grow, they grow amazingly fast. If you have some open space in your perennial bed, plant a hardy hibiscus.

After a rainy June, we may have thought that we would never have to water our outside plants. The combination of heat and lack of rain means that you should be watering your trees and shrubs each week. The lawns will need to be watered too. Depending on the variety, some of your perennials will need watering as well. You need to remember that many of your plants will soon be taking up water to store in the branches. This stored water is what helps many plants to survive the constant drying winter winds. If Mother Nature doesn’t supply the water you will have to do it.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

August 12, 2009

It is mid August and the true days of summer have arrived. It is also nice to have some cooler days with less humidity. It makes it easier to work in the garden.

As much as we hate to admit it, summer is winding down. We are not the only ones to notice this trend. The creepy crawlers also know this.

In late summer, mice are beginning to look for a place to spend the winter months. Your home usually has enough cracks to let mice get into your home. If you want to humanely keep the mice out of your home, there is a product you can use that acts as a mouse repellent. It is called Mouse Magic. Mouse Magic is made from mint oils. Mice don’t like the smell of mint. The mint is contained in small packets that you place around the house in areas where you would expect mice to enter your home. These places would include areas where pipes enter the home, in the bulkhead and around the garage door. You place the packets in these areas and the smell will keep mice from entering for 30 days. If you replace the packets every 30 days until the snow flies, you can keep mice out of your home.

The activity of mice also means that the ticks that carry Lyme disease will also begin to get active. The ticks use the mice as an intermediate host. There is a product that you can use that will take advantage of this situation. As the mice scurry around looking for a place to nest, they eventually come in contact with the ticks. The mice will bring nesting material back to their home along with the ticks. You can take advantage of this situation by placing a product called Damminix around your yard. The Damminix comes in small tubes that are filled with cotton balls. The cotton balls are treated with a pyrethrum insecticide. As the mice take the cotton balls back to the nest, the ticks are killed off. The insecticide does not harm the mouse. If you place the Damminix tubes around your yard now, you can greatly reduce the ticks that carry Lyme disease.

On a different note, the insect of the week would appear to be mealy bugs on holly plants. Check your holly plants to see if there are any white cottony looking areas on the leaves of your plants. You may also notice a sticky substance on the leaves of your holly. The leaves may also have a black substance on the leaves. If you see that the mealy bugs are on the leaves, you will want to treat the holly with a systemic insecticide. This is either applied to the soil around the base of the plant or it can be sprayed on the leaves. Either way, you want to control this insect as quickly as possible. The constant feeding by this insect will weaken the holly plant and make it very likely to cause the plant to be damaged easily by a harsh winter.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

July 22, 2009

What a difference a few sunny days makes in the growth of all our plants. Hopefully the vegetable gardens can make up for lost time and the annuals will continue to bloom until late October.

If you have been looking at your perennials gardens and they are looking a little sparse in the flowering department, it may be time to be looking at some of the summer flowering perennials. So many gardeners load up on spring flowering perennials and then they forget to go back to the garden centers during the summer months to look at all of the beautiful summer flowering plants. Many of the summer flowering plants have a longer flowering season than the spring flowering perennials. There are many of the summer flowering perennials that will flower from now until September or October. If you want to spice up the perennial beds in your yard, you should be looking at all of the summer flowering perennials.

Fungus diseases continue to be a problem on many plants. It is very important that you use good sanitation practices to avoid spreading diseases from plant to plant. If you have handled any diseased plants, make sure to thoroughly wash your hands before handling any plants that are not infected with a fungus disease. Scissors, knives or pruners that have been used to cut back diseased plants should be sanitized before using them on any plant that is not infected. You can use rubbing alcohol to sanitize the tools or you can use 1 part bleach to 9 parts water mixture to clean tools. Along with cleaning tools and washing your hands, be careful with watering equipment that may come in contact with diseased plants. A watering can or a hose nozzle that comes in contact with a diseased plant can spread disease to other plants. It is also important to clean up any dead leaves, diseased fruit or flowers that fall onto the ground. Over time, these diseased plant parts will drop spores on the ground. The spores will then overwinter and come spring, be splashed up onto plants. The spores will then start up fungus diseases on your plants next season.

I received an e mail from Dave in Newburyport who asked if 10-10-10 fertilizer was OK to use on his vegetable garden. Organic gardeners would probably tell him no, but this type of fertilizer is a balanced fertilizer that will allow for all the growth requirements of your vegetables. Since this fertilizer is a granular fertilizer, it should be applied on the vegetable garden once a month right up until the frost kills the plants. If you slack off late in the season, you will definitely see a slow down in the ripening of tomatoes and the slow down of many vegetables producing the quantity of vegetables that you should be getting right up until frost.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

July 15, 2009

It has been so nice to see the sun for several days in a row. The weather forecast is even calling for this whole week to be sunny. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope for the best in the weather department.

There have been reports that the Japanese Beetles are beginning to emerge from the lawn. Please keep an eye out for this beetle and begin to treat your plants with an appropriate insecticide as soon as you see them on your plants. These beetles can cause major damage to plants in a short period of time.

Japanese beetles feed on plants during July and August. During this time, the female lays eggs in the lawn and around the first of September the eggs hatch out and become the white grubs that eat the roots of your grass. If you want to reduce the damage caused by the grubs, now would be the time to apply the season long grub control. This product takes about 30 days to attach itself to the roots of the grass. Once it is attached to the roots it will remain in the roots all through the fall and it will kill the tiny grubs as soon as they begin to feed. This is a good way to head off the attack of grubs that kill the roots of your lawn.

There is also an organic grub control that you can apply to your lawn. It is called Milky Spore. Milky spore is a bacterium that attacks and kills the grubs of the Japanese beetles. It is a powder that is applied to the lawn and then watered into the lawn. Once the Milky Spore is established in your lawn, it remains active in your lawn for at least 10 years.

Insects and fungus diseases continue to be a problem on annuals, perennials and vegetable plants. You should be taking some time each week to look at your lawn and gardens to see if you have any developing problems with insects and or diseases. If you catch any infestation early enough, you can almost always stop the problem in its tracks. The key to this is early treatment. If you wait until the insects or diseases are well established, it is difficult to knock out the problem.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

July 8, 2009

We finally managed to put together a decent weekend. The sound of lawn mowers and the sounds of groaning gardeners with aching backs caused by a weekend of weeding the gardens fills the air. The joys of summer gardening after a month of rain.

It was good to see that so many of you followed my advice concerning the need to fertilize your gardens. Your plants will be growing their best from now on out.

The question came up several times this weekend about planting vegetable plants and seeds at this time of the season. You still have time to put in tomato plants. You will want to choose early maturing varieties. This will make up for the month lost to the rains of June. Peppers, summer squash, zucchini, cucumber and all of the herbs can still be planted now. The rain caused many of the vegetable seeds that were directly seeded into the garden to rot. You still have time to plant, from seed, green and yellow beans, broccoli, cabbage, New Zealand Spinach, and many of the other leafy vegetables. In fact, August is the month to put in fall crops of many of the cool season vegetables. If you didn’t get your vegetable garden in or if you lost things due to the weather, there is still time to get things planted.

Many of you have told me that your window boxes and other containers of annual flowers took a real hit during the month of June. You can still replace those dead plants with new plants. With the help of some fertilizer, it will only be about 2 weeks before your planters look as good as new.

Insect still seem to be in charge of all of the gardens. While technically not an insect, slugs and snails are devastating plants. An application or two of slug bait will work wonders at knocking back their numbers. While the population of aphids appears to be on the decline due to the ladybugs being active, many other insects will become more active. Sunny weather will mean the arrival of all types of caterpillars. Early on, so many of the caterpillars will be very small. In fact, some species never do get really large enough to be noticeable without very careful inspection of your plants. Caterpillars can be effectively controlled by using a biological spray or dust containing Bt. Bt is a host specific bacteria. It only kills caterpillars. You can use it on flowering plants and vegetable plants. If you find caterpillars early in the infestation, Bt is a very effective weapon.

If you haven’t done so, you should be walking around your gardens looking for signs of insects and promptly treating for those insects.

As I have said for weeks, fungus diseases are attacking all types of plants. Many of you are spraying fungicides on the plants to control the diseases. One thing that any numbers of people have told me is that they are cutting off branches of plants to control the diseases. Cutting off the branches will slow the spread of the disease, but it is not going to stop it. An application of a fungicide, even on diseased branches, is more effective than removal of the branch. On trees and shrubs, infected leaves will eventually fall off and may be replaced this year with new leaves. Even if the leaves are not replaced until next year, the plants will survive this season. Pruning off infected branches of trees and shrubs will damage the overall shape of the plant without gaining any significant disease control.

If fungus diseases are attacking your trees and shrubs, those infected leaves will fall to the ground. It is important to rake up and dispose of those leaves. If they are left on the ground, they will be a source of continued infection this year and also next year.

Recently, Cornell University released an advisory that late blight is showing up now on tomato plants. This is a serious and sometimes fatal disease of tomatoes, potatoes and even petunias. This diseases usually does not show up until much later in the season. It makes sense to treat your tomato plants with a fungicide. Unfortunately, many of the organic fungicides do not work on active late blight infections. If you have tomato plants, you would be well advised to spray them now with a fungicide.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

July 1, 2009

June has come and gone and I must admit that the only good thing about it from a gardening standpoint is that we didn’t have to spend a lot of money to pay for watering our gardens. Here’s hoping July has better weather.

If you look at your lawn and gardens, you will notice that some things are growing well and some things are growing poorly. Anything that needs a lot of water is growing well. Any plant that needs sunshine or any plant that likes dry soil is not doing so well. However, once the rain stops (hopeful optimist that I am) many plants will immediately begin to suffer. The reason for this is the lack of fertilizer in the soil. Take a minute to think about the last time you applied fertilizer to your lawn. When was the last time you fertilized the window boxes, or the hanging baskets? Ditto for the perennial beds. What has kept the plants going is the amount of moisture. The moisture has leached out most of, if not all of the fertilizer out of the soil. If you are not replacing that missing fertilizer, your plants will decline quickly when the sun does come out. Plants need fertilizer to grow green growth, flower buds and a strong root system. Fertilizer also helps plants to fight off fungus diseases. With all of the rain that we have had and all of the cool and damp weather, fungus diseases are and will be spreading fast. Fertilizing your plants will help the plants to fight off those diseases. As soon as possible, you should be applying fertilizer to all of your plants. This also means that you should be fertilizing your lawn too. You can use an organic or chemical fertilizer, granular or mixed with water. The form of fertilizer is not as important as making sure that all of your gardens and lawns get fertilized.

I know the question will come up concerning fertilizing shrubs too. Yes, it is important to fertilize the shrubs too. It is not too late to fertilize flowering trees and shrubs. The spring flowering shrubs will need the fertilizer to help set flower buds for 2010. Summer flowering shrubs will definitely need fertilizer to help them flower properly this summer.

The 4th of July is the normal time for the emergence of the Japanese Beetles. I am not really sure how the rainy and damp weather will affect the timing of their arrival. I am not even positive how bad the infestation will be this summer. The point is you should be setting up your Japanese Beetle traps soon. If you have an old trap, replace the bait and lure and put a new bag on the trap. If you are setting up a new or old trap, make sure it is set up on a sunny lawn area, about 10 feet away from plants that you are trying to protect from the beetles. Once the beetles begin to get trapped, make sure to change the bag on a weekly basis. If you don’t, the beetles will die in the bag and the smell will help to mask the scent given off from the trap.

An effective way to keep Japanese Beetles off of your plants is to spray Neem oil onto the plants. The Neem will kill the beetles if they eat parts of the treated plant. The scent of the Neem also acts as a repellent against Japanese Beetles.

Once the rain has stopped, it will be important for you to check all of your gardens for signs of fungus diseases and insect infestations. I know that many of you will have been reluctant to work in the wet gardens, but you do need to take some time to check on your plants. An application of an insecticide or a fungicide will prevent many problems that are mild from becoming severe.

I am reluctant to bring up the bad news about how well weeds grow in rainy weather. Once the rain lets up, get out to the gardens and begin weeding. It doesn’t have to be done all in one day. You can break it up into sections and do a little bit after work or do a larger section on your day off. Along with taking nutrients away from your plants, certain weeds can be a haven for insects. Get out the gloves and your trusty trug and get those weeds out of the garden.

Well, that’s all for this week. Have a safe and happy 4th. I’ll talk to you again next week.

June 24, 2009

I am beginning to feel that I could write one column and use it for the last 3 weeks! Rain and all of the associated garden problems continue unabated.

One of the biggest garden problems this week continues to be aphids on all sorts of plants. I think that the reason aphids are such a problem is that the weather being cool and damp makes for ideal breeding conditions. Add in the fact that most of the predators of aphids aren’t active in this kind of weather has made it easy for aphid problems to skyrocket.

Generally speaking, aphids should be easy to control. An application of a pyrethrum spray should knock back the population. If you follow up with another application in 4 days, you usually disrupt the lifecycle and eliminate most of the population. However, the rain has made it almost impossible for a 2-application spray schedule to effectively work. You spray the plants and the rain washes it off before it has time to work. The insecticides may kill on contact, but you hope for a bit of residual action to help keep the population of aphids in check. This is not to say to not spray your plants until the rain and showers stop. If you do, there will continue to be major damage on your plants.

Slugs also love this kind of weather. We have seen so many leaf samples with the tell tale smooth edged holes that indicate that slugs are feeding on plants. If you keep up with the application of an iron phosphate slug control, you will eventually knock back the slug population. It is kind of interesting to note that we have started to get reports of snails feeding during the day on plants. For years, snails were a fairly rare occurrence this far north. This just goes to show how well garden pests can adapt to our climate.

Long stretches of rainy and cool weather are also prime times for fungus diseases to hit all our garden plants. The problem is, again, that it is difficult to effectively spray plants with a fungicide and have time for it to work before the rain washes it off the plants. Bayer has a combination fertilizer, systemic insect control and systemic fungicide that will work well on rose bushes and other ornamental plants. Unfortunately, you cannot use it on your vegetable plants. Again, you will just have to do multiple applications of fungicide to your vegetable plants to try and check the spread of fungus diseases. Many of your perennials will be subject to fungus diseases. It is important to check your perennials too when you make your applications of fungicide.

The other unfortunate occurrence is that all of the rain and cool conditions has caused plants to just rot away. Cucumbers and members of the squash family have been hard hit by conditions that cause plants to rot. Heat loving annual such as zinnias, New Guinea impatiens, and portulaca have been hit especially hard. All we can hope for is the projected end of this rainy weather and then you will be able to re-plant and we can get on with the gardening season.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

June 17, 2009

The cloudy and damp weather seems to be continuing indefinitely. A week of sunshine would surely boost the spirits of everyone.

The prolonged period of damp weather means that gardeners are going to have to check their lawns and gardens carefully for signs of damage that can be contributed directly to the weather. Rainy weather for a long period of time can mean an increase in fungus diseases. In the last week, we have had an increasing number of customers come into the garden center with fungus problems on their lawn. The most common problem is a disease called red thread. The thing that most people notice first is a pink to red haze over the surface of the lawn. This is most noticeable early in the morning. This haze is the fungal strand that is spreading across the lawn. In some cases, this disease will go away on its own once the grass dries out and we get a week of dry and sunny days. If it continues to be serious, or if it is already serious, you can spray the lawn with a fungicide.

Fungus diseases will also be growing on many of your plants. In the vegetable garden, check your squash, cucumbers and pumpkins for a white haze that may be forming on the leaves. This is a disease called powdery mildew. It should be sprayed with an appropriate fungicide. This is important to get under control now because many of the plants are still small and can be killed by this disease. Perennials can also be susceptible to powdery mildew. You should check your tall phlox, bee balm and catmint for signs of this disease. Hollyhocks will be prone to a disease called rust. A general category of fungus disease called leaf spot can be infecting all kinds of plants. As the name implies, leaf spot is the spotting of the leaves of the plant. If you are not sure if any of these problems exist on your plants, put a sample of leaves into a plastic bag and bring the leaves into the garden center. Please do not just bring the leaves into the store without having them in a bag. We like to help, but we don’t want to introduce diseases onto our plants. All of the diseases can be controlled by the application of an appropriate fungicide.

There can also be problems with bacterial diseases on tomato plants when we get a prolonged period of rainy weather. We can identify this problem too if you bring samples into the garden center. Again, please bag any sample leaves if you bring the leaves into the store.

Prolonged rainy weather can also lead to problems with blossom end rot on your tomato plants. When the soil stays wet for long periods of time and then dries out, there can be a calcium deficiency created in the tomato plants. This will cause a black, leathery patch to form on the bottom of the tomatoes. Once this has formed, there is no cure. Prevention is the best way to stop this from happening. An application of lime or an application of calcium in a spray form will help to prevent the blossom end rot from forming. This should be done now. Tomato plants grown in containers are particularly susceptible to the formation of blossom end rot.

Rainy weather has created a bumper crop of slugs in the garden. Slugs feed only at night. The damage they cause is very smooth series of cuts on the leaves of your plants. If you notice smooth cuts on the leaves of your plants, yet you don’t see any insects feeding on the plant, the odds are that it is slugs feeding on your plants. You can check for slugs by going out to the garden an hour or so after darkness has set in. Shine a flashlight beam on your plants and if you see something that looks like a fat worm on the leaves, than you have slugs feeding in your garden. You can apply a slug bait containing iron to control the slugs. It is placed around the base of the plants. The slugs are attracted to the bait and once they eat it, they die quickly. These baits are safe to use around pets and wildlife.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.