Timely Tips from Over the Garden Fence
You can catch George Wedel on Over the Garden Fence, 9:05 am Saturdays on AM 590 WKZO.
And return here each week at www.wedels.com for the latest in Wedel's timely tips.
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TIMELY GARDEN TIPS FROM OVER THE GARDEN FENCE JUNE 8, 2002 It sure is wonderful when we can forget the cold of the May past as we become emerged in the great gardening weather this week. Just when the moisture was needed, God sent showers and warmth to give our seeds and new transplants the jump start they needed. Folks who haven’t had time between showers to get their gardens planted, will be busily tucking plants into the soil today. Because of the inclement weather earlier, I just planted my sweet corn, cucumber, green bean, and winter squash seeds this past Thursday, all sure of a good harvest. Have you had time? Jump on the gardening bandwagon this weekend! Because of the early cold spring, the workers at Wedel’s Nursery fell behind their April and May plant harvesting. The last two weeks, they have been cranking up the pace with super soil conditions. Trees, shrubs, and evergreens are being shipped daily to the garden center. Right now the selection of landscape and garden plants is certainly at it’s peak. Real “plant lovers” will have a field day gazing at the new arrivals and the older, more familiar varieties. Many lawn owners were thwarted this spring in their attempts at controlling broadleaf weeds. Rain, rain, and more rain helped weeds escape control measures and become larger and stronger each day. This would be a great time to spray Dragon Trimec weed control to rid turf of dandelion, buckhorn, chickweed, knawel, sorrel, and a host of other broadleaf weeds. Remember to make sure there is adequate moisture in the soil before spraying week controls. For best results, irrigate lawn 24 hours before weed control application and repeat ten days later. The wet spring has left many lawns depleted of nitrogen. Lawns that are off color would green up quickly with an application of iron-rich Scotts Lawn Pro turf food. Many spring flowering shrubs have finished blooming, making now the best time to prune them. Lilac, forsythia, and quince should have their old stems removed and newer branches pruned back to keep the plants compact. Hollyhock plants are very susceptible to rust infection on stems and leaves. Recent weather conditions have promoted this problem, with rust spots so numerous that they run together and destroy the entire leaf. Remove the most seriously infected leaves, then spray with Immunox Fungicide. Immunox will also control mildew and leaf spot as well as rust on many other perennial plants. There has been a tremendous infestation of four-lined plant bugs in many gardens. The mature insects are yellowish-green with four black stripes down the wing covers. They usually feed on the top-most leaves of many garden and ornamental landscape plants and cause an irregular bronze spotting. Host plants are Shasta daisies, chrysanthemum, coreopsis, dahlia, morning glory, lavender, geranium, and zinnia. Some of the shrubs affected are honeysuckle, viburnum, forsythia, and hydrangea. Control the four-lined plant bug with frequent sprays of Sevin, Malathion, Orthene, or Pyrethrin. Phomopsis twig blight has infected many junipers this year, both the spreading and upright types. The fungus attacks the needles and new stems of all junipers, turning them brown. Too frequent watering from a sprinkling system is usually to blame. Landscape plants need occasional water during dry spells, but not nearly as often as lawn areas. Control of Phomopsis blight on junipers involves minimizing water on foliage. To help infected junipers recover, prune out dead foliage and remove. Spray with Thioallophanate Fungicide mixed with Spreader Sticker. Then feed with Tree Tone fertilizer. Oyster shell scale can be a problem on lilac shrubs, ash trees, flowering dogwood, and fruit trees. Check twigs on weak-looking branches for tiny oyster-shaped scales. Crawler emergence has begun in our area. The infested plants should be sprayed with Horticultural Oil spray mixed with Malathion. Spray this week, and again two weeks from now. Be sure to spray infested plants next March with a dormant oil spray. If your tomato plants defoliated in mid-summer last year or if the fruits were blemished, now is the time to begin a preventative spray program. Spray tomatoes with Dacinol every 10 days for disease-free fruit and healthy plants. Last summer, many gardeners that had previously healthy squash vines saw them collapse overnight and die. The culprit could have been either phytophtora crown canker or squash vine borer. To prevent these pests from destroying your vine crops, begin spraying as soon as seeds germinate. Apply a combination spray of Liquid Copper Fungicide mixed with Rotenone-Pyrethrin insect control every ten days through July. These sprays will also keep squash bug activity in check. This week, there were several reports of “missing marigolds”. Gardeners who distinctly remember planting marigolds in their garden border on Saturday found them missing on Tuesday. The only evidence has been thin, leafless stems and an occasional lifeless flower. The culprit has been found working after 11:00 pm on any windless night. He has been identified as a ground slug. Yes, slugs are out in great numbers. Slugs are easy to please if only they have marigolds, hosta, salvia, and dahlias to feed on. Kill slugs now before they get out of control – simply scatter Bug-Geta Plus pellets on dampened soil late in the day. Applications of Bug-Geta Plus around susceptible plants once a month will control slugs. Bug-Geta Plus pellets are also effective in controlling cutworm damage around new transplants and seedlings in both flower and vegetable gardens. We are all planting our bedding plants and vegetables later this year than normal. To get the optimum enjoyment and harvest from our gardens this summer, adequate nutrients and moisture will need to be available to flower and vegetable plants every day of the growing season. When planting, be sure to work Plant Tone into soil, then foliar feed plants every two weeks with Schultz Instant plant food. Two weeks after seeds have come up and ten to twelve days after transplants have been set out, be sure to cultivate your plantings. Then apply Preen weed preventer around most vegetable, flower, and landscape plantings and your time spent weeding will be reduced by 90% this summer. After annual flowers fade, plants shift their gears and turn their energy to producing seed, not more flowers. To promote continuous blooming annual flowers this summer, be sure to remove dead flowers before they produce seeds. Keep vegetables and flowers evenly moist. An up and down, roller coaster watering pattern is most confusing to plants. Each time a plant dries out, it begins to go dormant. Water deeply and as often as the plants require it to keep plants growing and blooming. George Wedel |
Timely Tips
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07/27/02 |