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July 4, 2001
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Busy As A Bee...
Vacation will be here soon and I am feverishly running around trying to ready the house, garden and family.  I am much in need of a vacation.  We have been busy with the usual summer activities and I need a week to recoup.  I do have one problem.  My garden is just peaking and I will miss it at it's best.  Now what justice is that?  The summer heat is creeping up on us and once we return from vacation most of my plants will look a little tired.  Who knows, maybe we'll have a cold front come through and the temperatures will remain in the mid 70's while we are gone.  Wishful thinking! 

I am trying to adjust to having Sam Parker around the house and garden. I think he already knows that the garden is a sacred place and occasionally tries to run through it when I am not looking.  He is a smart dog and I am already in love with him.  Now that we are dog owners it is important to remember that Earl May has a very large assortment of pet items.  Not only are they a terrific garden center but also a complete pet store.  I now can kill two birds with one stone (figuratively speaking) by shopping for flowers and dog treats at the same place.  Now that is exciting! 

Savvygardeners get a unique opportunity to see some great plants this week.  Hundreds of exotic prize-winning gesneriads (gloxinias and other gesneriads such as African violets) will be highlighted at the annual convention of the American Gloxinia & Gesneriad Society (AGGS) at the Hyatt Regency ­ Crown Center July 3-8th.  For details click here...

To your family from ours - Have a safe and happy July 4th!

~ Shelly  

Great Growth...
At the Kelly Gallery gathering a couple of weeks ago a fellow Savvygardener lamented that she could not seem to get her impatiens to really take off and bloom profusely.  I was happy to share a simple secret to bushy, flowery impatiens - Miracle-Gro.  Whether it's the name brand or the knock-offs (we use the K-Mart and Wal-Mart versions too) impatiens love this stuff and frankly they can't seem to get enough.  We add the proscribed amount every other time we water and by mid-summer our impatiens look like small flowering shrubs.  

Potato Surprise!
If your potatoes seem to be bearing a strange fruit don't be alarmed.  Under favorable weather conditions, potatoes produce fruit on the top of the plant that looks a lot like small tomatoes.  (Tomatoes and potatoes are actually closely related).  Don't get an appetite for these things!  Potato fruits are not edible.  In fact they contain a toxic substance (solanine) that can cause illness if eaten.  Fortunately, the compound is so bitter and vile tasting that you probably couldn't stand to eat enough to do much harm.  Still, it's probably best to remove and dispose of fruit so that they are not accidentally eaten by children.

Source

Soapy Suds For Garden Bugs...
We get lots of inquiries about safer alternatives to chemical insecticides.  An old and popular favorite worth consideration is insecticidal soap.
  Not to be confused with personal or household soaps, insecticidal soaps are made from the salts of fatty acids, components of the fats and oils found in plants and animals.  Upon contact with an insect the fatty acids disrupt the structure and permeability of the insect's cell membranes enabling the cell contents to leak from the damaged cells, causing the insect to die.  This rather morbid process is only effective against soft-bodied pests like aphids, thrips, whiteflies, leafhoppers, mealybugs and mites.  

Because they work on contact only, insecticidal soaps should be applied when conditions favor slow drying like the early morning hours with dew coverage or in the early evening.

In some instances insecticidal soaps could cause burning of sensitive plants.  Most insecticidal soaps include a list of susceptible plants on the label but if you're uncertain simply test it on a single leaf.  If damage is going to occur it will likely happen within 24 hours. 

Reduce, Recycle, Rejuvenate...
If your established strawberry planting continues to make vigorous growth and is free of weeds and disease, it is a relatively simple task to rejuvenate it.   Remove the mulch, and clip the tops of the plants to about one inch above the crowns with a mower or shears.  Be careful not to cut into the crown (the heavy growth point) at ground level.  If the crown is damaged, the plant may not recover.  

Also, to give your strawberry patch a boost, thin out crowded areas.  Cut foliage one inch above the ground to eliminate insect and disease problems.  Fertilize and water regularly, and you will produce a vigorous crop for next season.

Source

There's One Born Every Minute...
What do you call those little shoots that appear on and around your trees this time of year?  Well, suckers are the ones that grow out of the trunk near ground level.  The ones that come out of the trunk or main limbs and grow straight up are watersprouts.  Now that you know what they are called you can proceed to remove them.  Simply cut them as close to the tree as possible with clean sharp pruners.  This will allow much needed sunlight to reach the branches that will bear fruit and/or flowers.

What's Hot On The Hotline...
Nothing is more disappointing than to acquire a healthy specimen of a plant, tend it carefully, following all the directions, and then end up with failure. This does not mean that the plant does not grow, or even flourish, but it does not produce according to expectations.  It happens to us all.  Find out why in this week's What's Hot on the Hotline... 

Fear Of Fungus...
Late afternoon and evening lawn watering should be avoided like the plague, or at least like a fungus.  The right combination of darkness, warmth and humidity can lead to lawn diseases that may be hard to recover from.  A good rule of thumb is that when the night-time temperature plus relative humidity equals 150 or more the conditions are right for an outbreak of turf fungus.  Trust me, you do not want a bad case of lawn fungus!     

Finally...
"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth...and no culture comparable to that of the garden...But though an old man, I am but a young gardener."

~ Thomas Jefferson

 

 

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