Savvygardener.com

Click Here For The Sweet Onion Nursery & Garden Center!

 
Visit Our Website
Previous Issues
Buyer's Guide  
Tell A Friend  

Bookstore  
Magazines 
Gardening Catalogs

Site Search
Contact Us
Submit A Tip

Feature Articles

~ When to Start
Seeds Indoors
~ Seed Starting Indoors
~ Vegetable Garden Calendar
~ Seed Starting Tomatoes

~

Shrub Pruning Calendar
~ Pruning Clematis 
~ Gardening in the Shade
~ Summer-Flowering Bulb Care
~ Drought-Tolerant Flowers for KC
~ Preparing for a Soil Test
~ Changing the pH of Your Soil
~ Growing Herbs
~ All About Composting
~ All About Mulch
~ Worm Composting
~ When to Harvest Vegetables
~ Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
~ Cold Frames & Hot Beds
~ When to Divide Perennials
~ Dividing Spring Blooming Perennials
~ Forcing Bulbs Indoors
~ More...

Rose Tips
What's Hot... 
Turf Tips...
Winter Wisdom

SavvyChat
~ On-Line Gardening Forum

Books We Love
Great Products
Web Resources
Event Calendar

Local Sponsors

~ Earl May
~ The Kelly Gallery
~ Missouri Organic Recycling
~ The Sweet Onion

National Sponsors

Subscribe
Unsubscribe 
Address Change
Tell A Friend

Privacy Pledge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Here for Great Soil and Compost!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 6, 2001

Went To Bed And Bumped His Head.....
And couldn't get up in the morning!  As the children wander around the house singing this song I too have found myself joining in another round of "Rain, Rain Go Away" trying my best to be optimistic that summer will soon be here.  Our youngest son Jacob (3 yrs) is confused.  He remembers my assurances that summer would be here once school was out and that we would  be able to go to the swimming pool.  So daily he asks, "Mom can we go to the pool?"  My reply thus far has been, "Not today Jacob, it is too chilly and rainy."  Hopefully we can busy ourselves with indoor activities until Mother Nature dries things up a bit.  It is pretty amazing how my boys love mud puddles.  I am afraid I don't share the same appreciation.

Since summer is not officially here until June 21st I guess we should welcome the rain and cooler weather.  After all we have no idea what the summer heat will bring us in July.  It looks like we might get a couple of days to dry out followed by even more rain this weekend.  Ugh!  I am starting to feel like my plants, water-logged!

I wanted to thank all of our subscribers for patronizing our sponsors.  Kevin and I hear very positive feedback from our sponsors which is so important to us.  After all, without sponsors there would be no Savvygardener.com!  Keep up the good work and spread the word to other gardeners, garden centers and nurseries!

~ Shelly  

It's A Wrap!
Ever wonder how gardeners produce the perfect blooms that are entered in flower shows?  My flowers look great but I have to admit they don't hold up to extra-close inspection.  Here's one secret to perfectly beautiful blooms:

  • Start with a piece of spun-bonded, polyester row cover material.
  • Cut a square large enough to cover the desired bud.
  • Loosely wrap each bloom with the fabric gathering the edges with strong thread so the material is snug against the stem.
  • Keep the bloom wrapped until cutting time.

This nifty trick will prevent insects from getting to your prized buds.

Controlling Critters On Your Cukes...
The striped cucumber beetle is a serious threat to cucurbits, such as squash, cucumber, melon and pumpkin.  The larvae will cause severe damage to roots and beetles can do a real number on an emerging plant by feeding on the lower surface of its leaves.  These menaces also spread bacterial wilt, cucumber mosaic, and squash mosaic virus.

Although there are several insecticides that control the cucumber beetle only a few chemicals can be used on cucurbit plants because of their sensitivity to chemical injury.  Application of an insecticide is usually recommended as soon as the plants begin to emerge through the soil.  For prevention of bacterial wilt it is often advisable to spray at five day intervals beginning when seedlings emerge or after transplanting and continuing until the vines run.

Hand-picking is an organic approach and should be done in the early morning when most feeding occurs.  These beetles are easy to kill but reinforcements arriving on the plants make this a very time consuming job.

Insecticides labeled for vegetables containing pyrethrum, rotenone, methoxychlor, or carbaryl (Sevin) should control the beetles.  As always, follow directions and warnings carefully when using chemicals.

If You See Red You Might Have Mites...
What's black and white and red all over?  The newspaper I just used to squash some clover mites!  Clover mites are those little red spider-like bugs that have been calling my house home for the last week or two.  Chances are you've got them too.  Here's some facts to help you cope.

First of all, clover mites are harmless.  They cannot bite or sting; they do not carry diseases; they do not infest stored foods; they cannot attack the house structure and furnishings.  They reproduce outdoors and every mite seen indoors has wandered in from outside.  Clover mites are plant feeders only.  They feed on sap from grasses and clover, and are especially numerous in lawns with a heavy growth of succulent, well-fertilized grass.  They do not cause any apparent harm to turfgrass.

Preventing their entry into your dwelling requires a 18-36 inch band of gravel, sand, wood chips, or other non-grassy material around the house foundation.  Another approach is growing plants around the foundation that clover mites don't like.  These include chrysanthemums, geraniums, petunias, roses, salvias, yews and zinnias.  Chemical controls (following labeling directions) include Diazinon, Dursban, Orthene, pyrethrins, and insecticidal soaps.

Clover mites already indoors should be removed from fabric surfaces with a vacuum cleaner. Avoid wiping the clover mites as crushing them often creates an undesirable and durable red-brown stain.

No Smoking Please,  We're Growing Tomatoes...
OK, smokers feel like everyone is picking on them.  Maybe so.  Smokers take heed however.  There are gardening problems associated with smoking also.  Tobacco mosaic virus is a disease that attacks a wide range of plants, including tomato, pepper, eggplant, spinach, petunia and marigold.  It is a devastating disease that, once contracted, is controllable only through the destruction of the infected plant.

Any tobacco product including cigars, cigarettes, pipe, and chewing tobacco can be infected with tobacco mosaic virus.  Handling these items can contaminate the hands, and subsequent handling of plants results in a transmission of the virus.  Thorough hand washing after handling tobacco products is a good preventive measure.  Dipping hands in milk prior to handling plants has been reported to reduce the spread of the virus as well.  If you find this more convenient than washing please feel free to try it.

Erupting Soon In A Garden Near You...
All this wet weather is undoubtedly going to be followed by some rather warm early summer temperatures.  If you have mulched areas in your garden that unique combination is going to lead to something that's pretty disgusting to look at - slime mold eruptions.  You see, slime mold spores will grow and expand (at an alarming rate) until they "erupt" over the surface of the mulch.  It's not very pretty to look at but rest assured it's harmless.  Try to scoop it up whole (so you don't inadvertently release more spores) and dispose of it in a compost pile or trash can.  

 

Did you know that over 3,100 Kansas City gardeners read Savvygardener.com each week?
Let's find the ones that don't and share the wealth of information!
Click Here To Tell A Friend!

 

What's Hot On The Hotline...
Many callers to the Extension Master Gardener Hotline have expressed concern over the numerous moths seen in the grass and the garden, and the activity of worms eating hostas and other garden vegetation.  There's a connection between the two and it is explained in this week's What's Hot on the Hotline... 

Never Too Wet To Mow...
Where did we all learn that you're not supposed to mow wet grass?  Well, guess what?  It's not true!  As long as your mower blade is sharp there should be no real problems with mowing wet turf.  In fact when the weather is as rainy as it has been lately you're much better off mowing it wet than not at all.  Waiting too long means mowing very tall grass and inevitably will result in excessive top removal.

Admittedly wet grass clippings can be a chore to deal with.  Make sure your mower's discharge chute doesn't get clogged (clearing it carefully only when the mower is not running).  If you don't usually bag your clippings you'll probably want to when it's wet.  Otherwise the clippings will get clumpy, look like heck, and may damage the turf they cover.

Finally...
"In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day.  No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them."

~ Aldo Leopold, Writer, 1887-1948

 

 

Click Here for Earl May!

© 1999-2000 Savvygardener.com, Inc. All rights reserved.  If you wish to copy, transmit, or otherwise duplicate any of the material from our website please ask us first.  Thank you.o