July
4, 2001
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 |