Savvygardener.com

willco landscaping

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

Bookstore  
Magazines 
Gardening Catalogs

Site Search
Contact Us
Submit A Tip

Feature Articles

~ Houseplant Care
~ 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
~ Overseeding A Lawn
~ More...

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

SavvyChat
~ On-Line Gardening Forum

Books We Love
Great Products
Web Resources
Event Calendar

Local Sponsors

~ Bradfield Industries
~ Earl May
~ Family Tree Nursery
~ The Kelly Gallery
~ Moncrief's Greenhouse
~ Missouri Organic Recycling

 

Subscribe
Unsubscribe 
Address Change
Tell A Friend

Privacy Pledge

 

 

 

Click Here for Great Soil and Compost!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Here for The Kelly Gallery!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click Here for Moncrief's Greenhouse

 

 

 

 

 

July 10, 2002

Soaking Up The Sun...
We are on the Outer Banks in North Carolina this week and have just watched a wonderful thunderstorm roll through.  The rain was a good one and it was nice to watch it approach from the ocean.  They are in desperate need of rain here as the Carolinas are also experiencing drought-like conditions.  I am sure the locals are finally relieved to see some rain.  Kevin and I have been keeping an eye on Kansas City's weather and have noticed the blistering temperatures.  I do have a young neighbor caring for the gardens so I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything will still be alive once we get home.  I guess that is the risk you take when taking an extended vacation. 

I sure have enjoyed looking at the local landscape.  Of course it is a little sandy and desert-like but you should see the goblin blanket flowers and the Stella d'Oro daylilies.  They are fabulous and are in bloom everywhere.  It is always so much fun to travel to different parts of the country to see what is planted and how it thrives.  Interesting enough goblin blanket flowers and Stella d'Oro lilies bloom particularly well in Kansas City.  The wave petunias are proliferous and the Nikko blue hydrangeas are everywhere and are huge!  I only hope that my Nikko blue will grow to be the size of some I have seen here.  Who knows, maybe I will bring home some ocean sand and put some around my hydrangea.  

I will be on KCTV 5 on either Saturday the 20th or Sunday the 21st talking about our front yard make-over.  I will give more detailed information next week once we return from vacation and the date and time has been confirmed.  I am excited to talk about our new front yard and how we went about the process!  I hope you'll tune in. 

I want to personally thank Victoria Sizemore, a reporter with the Kansas City Star who recently awarded our website a five-star (highest) rating for local gardening information and advice.  Kevin and I are both proud to announce that we are now sending out our weekly newsletter to over 5,000 subscribers!  We've come a long way and are looking toward the future with high expectations.  

Hope all is well in KC, be home soon!

~ Shelly  

Timing Is Everything...
Some of us are morning people, others need more time to get going every day.  The same is true for garden vegetables!  The time of day you pick your vegetables can actually have a dramatic effect on their taste and texture.  For instance,  your lettuce and cucumbers will be crispier if picked early - before the hot sun has had a chance to wilt your crop.  On the other hand corn and peas will be sweeter if you wait until later in the day when their sugar levels are highest.  Yum!

Nurturing Nature's Night Lights...
Some things just mean summer to me.  Fireflies (lightning bugs to some of you) fit that category nicely.  My kids could spend hours catching these magical creatures and putting them in a jar or cage.  Before calling it a night however, I make sure they let the fireflies escape.  Anglers call it catch and release.  We call it good gardening.  You see, the larvae of fireflies dine on cutworms, mites, slugs, snails, soft-bodied insects and the larvae of other insects.  They apparently have voracious appetites and quietly do wonders keeping pests at bay.

Shake It Up...
Although tomatoes are self-pollinating, they need movement to transfer pollen.  If it is hot and calm for several days you may need to gently shake your plants to assure that pollen is properly transferred.  Very hot temperatures can also interfere with blossom set.  One solution is to mist the plants periodically throughout the day.  Careful here!  Wet leaves can promote other diseases.  If you choose to mist do it during the day when plants will have adequate time to dry out before nightfall.

 


Too Hot to Garden?
Curl Up Inside With A Good
Gardening Magazine!

Click here for great rates!

 

 

Spittle Bugs On Red Buds...
Just outside our dining room window is our lovely Eastern Redbud - one of my all time favorite trees.  Lately the redbud has been host to a strange little pest - the two-lined spittlebug.  This pest derives its name from the white, frothy "spittle" the nymphs produce and the two red stripes that go crosswise across the back.  The eyes and abdomen are bright red.  Though the nymphs resemble the adults, they are smaller and wingless.  Color varies from yellow to white to orange but the eyes are always red.

Here's the weird part.  Spittlebug nymphs suck plant juices like aphids, but they remove so much water and carbohydrates that excess fluid is produced.  They cover themselves with this fluid and then produce the spittle by bubbling air from the tip of the abdomen into the liquid.  The spittle mass helps protect the nymphs both from drying and from predators. 

Spittlebugs normally do not achieve high enough populations to cause damage.  If they do, you can usually control them with a jet of water from the garden hose.  For really bad infestations carbaryl (Sevin) will do them in.

Source

The Hoe Truth...
Garden hoes do not come with operating instructions, and most people wouldn't think of taking lessons on hoeing a garden.  But with improper technique, you can do do more harm than good.  Chuck Marr at K-State Research & Extension reminds us that a hoe is designed to scrape the surface of the soil and cut off small weeds in the process.  Hoeing when weeds are small makes them easier to control and reduces their competition with garden plants.  For this reason, it is a good idea to keep the edge of the hoe sharp.  In many soils, this may be difficult because the soil particles tend to dull the edge.  Keep a file handy to 'touch up' the edge frequently.  Use a light scraping motion.  Not only is this easier and less work but it does not dig into the soil where shallow roots of plants may be damaged by your digging.  

If you are choosing a new hoe, try to get one that is light and manageable but still can be sharpened to a sharp edge.  Most new hoes do not have a really sharp edge so you will need to sharpen it before first use.  After use, gently wipe the surface of the hoe with light oil so that it remains clean and rust-free.  A shiny, smooth surface of the hoe blade is better than a rough, rusty one.

Source

 


Tell Your Friends About Savvygardener.com!

You Could Win A $50 Gift Certificate

Click Here For Details...

 

 

What's Hot On The Hotline...
Many gardeners have found groundcover plants a useful and attractive addition to their landscapes, and a solution to some persistent problems of plant protection and maintenance.  With the increased commercial availability of plants suitable for use as groundcover, gardeners' imaginations have found new and varied uses for them.  Get your imagination going in this week's What's Hot on the Hotline...

Dormez Vous Fescue?
We've had a number of Savvygardeners ask about letting lawns go dormant during summer.  This time of year many cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, fescue and perennial rye will naturally go dormant and turn brown due to lack of water or too much heat.  Remember, the lawn is not dead - it's only dormant and will green up again when the weather is more favorable in the fall.  Mow it regularly to about three inches and water during extended dry periods.  

Now, we've been around long enough to know that most of you can't stand the idea of brown grass all summer.  If you wish to keep the lawn green you will need to follow a regular watering routine before the lawn begins to brown.  Once the lawn goes dormant watering will not generally green it up until fall.  You will need about 1 inch of rain or irrigation per week.  It is better to give the lawn a good soaking (to a 6 inch depth) once a week than frequent light watering.  Always water early in the day to reduce disease occurrence.

Finally...
"It is at the edge of a petal that love waits."

~ William Carlos Williams, Poet, 1883-1963

 

 

Earl May

© 1999-2002 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

To stop receiving this newsletter please click here...