TIMELY GARDEN TIPS FROM

OVER THE GARDEN FENCE

July 30, 2005

Nearly every season of every year, those who work the soil are often heard to exclaim: "It has never been this hot!" "Driest it's been in years!" "More humidity than I've ever experienced!" "Never seen it rain cats and dogs day after day like it has this July!" "Coldest winter!" "Warmest April! Perfect May!" "Never has the corn grown so tall so fast!" "The cucumber plants are larger than ever before!"

Sure is challenging and fun being connected and working with this part of God's creation. Successful gardeners respond quickly to changes in weather conditions. With the high humidity, rainfall, and temperatures this month, care must be taken to not over-water, keep plant diseases and insects in check, and keep fast growing weeds in check.

Let's take a look around this morning and report to you, our gardening friends, some important garden and lawn issues.

As fruits and vegetables ripen, often they are plagued with damaging sap beetles. Sap beetles are 1/8 inch long, shiny black with yellow spots, and are often seen boring into ripe tomatoes, melons, sweet corn, and other garden crops. Control sap beetles with sprays of Pyrethrin or 10% Permethrin insect spray.

Adult Japanese beetles are feeding on lindens, elms, purple-leaf plums, raspberry plants, crabapples, canna lilies, and a variety of other annual and perennial flowers, trees, and shrubs. The beetles usually start feeding near the tops of plants, making lace out of the leaves by consuming all the tissue between veins. In heavy infestations, the tops of preferred trees are being defoliated and sometimes the entire tree. Plants may have to be sprayed weekly until lat August if they are under extreme pressure. Sevin or Pyrethrin are good products for Japanese beetle control. To control light infestations of the beetles, I keep a ready-to-use pre-mixed Pyrethrin spray with me while in the garden. Just a quick pull of the lever and a very light spray zaps them. Ready-to-use Take-Down Pyrethrin spray can be used in both vegetable and flower gardens.

It's time for the last rose bush feeding of the year. Apply one-half cup of Rose Tone around each rose bush this week. Feeding now will promote more blooms this autumn. Continue to spray rose bushes once every ten days with Orthenex. Insect and disease-free rose plants always produce more blooms.

Many samples of plants that are being over watered were seen this week. Often, these samples are from landscapes in areas where the soil contains much clay. The combination of clay soil and sprinkler systems set to apply moisture than woody plants require is literally drowning the plants. Plants that are in water-saturated soil will exhibit many of the same characteristics as dry plants because drowned roots no longer function and thus the leaves yellow, dry, and die. If your landscape and garden soils are clay, be sure of the need for moisture before irrigating.

Flower bed soil that stays wet too long after a rain and becomes very hard when dry can be improved. This autumn after perennial flowers have been cut back and annual flowers removed, work into the soil this recipe: Clay Soil Conditioner, composted cow manure, sphagnum peat moss, gypsum, Plant Tone, and bone meal. For suggestions on quantities, bring a soil sample to Wedel's Diagnostic Center.

Lawns that exhibit poor drainage, hard soil, shallow grass roots, and thin turf could be improved by the use of a coring machine and applying Clay Soil Conditioner and gypsum. Repeat three times, one year apart. The results of coring the lawn and applying gypsum and clay soil conditioner will be a more loose soil that will drain better, promote deeper grass roots and thicker turf, and soil that will no longer become hard-packed.

The huge numbers of Japanese Beetles damaging so many landscape and garden plants this summer should be a reminder to apply Grubex to our lawns now. One application of Grubex now will give twelve months control of Japanese Beetle grubs in the lawn and reduce next summer's quantity of beetles in the landscape and garden.

We're seeing more and more diseased tomato leaves. Control tomato diseases with Daconil sprays. First, pick off all yellow or spotted tomato leaves, then spray the Daconil. Mulch plants to prevent disease spores from being splashed up onto the lower leaves of tomato plants.