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.

TIMELY GARDEN TIPS FROM OVER THE GARDEN FENCE AUGUST 9, 2003 Successful gardeners are always weather-savvy. Measuring each rainfall. Checking soil moisture levels often. Carefully applying irrigation when needed and not over-watering. This growing season certainly has been a challenge even for the most experienced gardener. So far this year, we have experienced quite a variety of weather conditions including an extra cold and dry winter, times of adequate moisture, and times with drought conditions. Southwest Michigan gardeners have met the weather challenges and so many gardens are peaking in their full colorful splendor just now. It would be interesting to compare our local gardens to any other area; I'm sure we would win in almost every category. To enjoy continuous garden and landscape color, I recommend a monthly assessment. If at any time that there are blank, green, dormant, or dull spaces, make a note of them then visit Wedel's Garden Center for some fill-in plants. Perennials at their peak at the garden center that are ready to move to your gardens include purple cone flower, rudbeckia, hybrid lilies, continuous blooming daylilies, and butterfly bush, to name just a few. Landscape plantings that exhibit only green, green, and more green can be livened up with any number of exciting summer plants from Wedel's. Potentilla shrubs bloom all summer with white or yellow flowers. Hypericum shrubs are all-summer bloomers showing half-dollar size golden yellow blooms. Golden leaf privet can enhance many over-green areas. Dwarf arctic blue willow makes an interesting contrast shrub. Diablo ninebark is an exciting new shrub with purple leaves and white summer flowers. The hardy hydrangea shrub category has exploded with many new colors and more prolific bloomers. And be sure to try one or two of the many ornamental grasses with their interesting foliage and attractive flower plumes. I hope that I've whetted your appetite to examine your summer landscape for the possibilities of increasing this summer's and autumn's garden interest and enjoyment by planting now. Remember, if you have the time and water, Wedel's has the plants to help you out. A recent article in one of my trade journals offered a reminder to everyone that works in their garden and landscape. It is a reminder from Miss Dig Systems. Most of us don't consider ourselves as professional excavators, but caution is advised for anyone that digs into the soil. Building fences and decks, installing electronic dog fencing, irrigation, planting trees and shrubs, even building retaining walls all involve digging that can cause unforeseen problems. There are so many underground utilities that can be damaged, even with a shovel. Some are buried shallower than one might expect. Telephone lines, natural gas, and irrigation lines are often only six to eighteen inches deep. Every year there are nearly 10,000 digging damages in Michigan. Most digging accidents can be avoided by simply calling Miss Dig before breaking ground. A good number to record is 1-800-482-7171. Prevent an accident and wasted time by calling Miss Dig at 1-800-482-7171 three days before breaking ground. Japanese beetles have reached peak numbers in most neighborhoods. Sevin or Pyrethrin sprays will kill the feeding adults. Be sure to apply Grubex to lawns now for an entire year's control of the Japanese beetle grub and, in turn, reduce the number of feeding adult beetles next August. Corn ear worm is beginning to show up in more and more plantings of sweet corn. Control corn ear worm with 10% Permethrin sprayed on the silk at weekly intervals. Fruits and vegetables beginning to ripen often are plagued with small, shiny, yellow-spotted black beetles. The sap beetle drills holes into, feeds, and spoils ripening melons, berries, sweet corn, tomatoes and other produce. Control sap beetles with sprays of Pyrethrin or 10% Permethrin. If your vegetable garden soil is heavy and stays damp on the surface, consider raising the fruits of melons and winter squash off the ground. When these fruits lie on damp soil when nearly ripe, they are vulnerable to decay and infestation of sap beetles. Elevate fruits on a board or inverted coffee can. Be sure to punch holes in the inverted can to allow rainwater to drain. More and more examples of declining plants are being identified with chlorosis problems. Chlorosis is an abnormal condition of plants in which the green part of the plant's leaves turn yellow, then brown, and often die a slow death. It is most often caused by a lack of trace elements in the soil or a pH imbalance. Due to intensive cultivation of turf grass and gardens, the major plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium) are consumed and usually replaced with lawn and garden fertilizers. Although not required in as large amounts, various other elements are just as essential for healthy garden and ornamental plant growth. Some of these other elements are often referred to as trace elements. They include iron, zinc, sulfur, boron, calcium, magnesium, cobalt, copper, manganese, and molybdenum. Trace elements are locked up in many soils and are not available to plants. What do these minor elements do? Sulfur is necessary in chlorophyll formation and develops enzymes and vitamins, manganese plays a direct role in photosynthesis and increases availability of phosphates and calcium, zinc is necessary for production of chlorophyll, iron is a catalyst to chlorophyll formation, and copper is necessary in chorophyll formation and helps in plant flowering. How can your plants receive the trace elements they need? Well, many plant foods sold today have very incomplete formulas, usually containing only nitrogen, phosphate, and potash. While very important, if they are not supplemented with trace elements many plants and lawns will, in time, begin to exhibit slow anemic growth, yellowing leaves, and tip die back. At Wedel's Garden Center we sell packages of trace elements for sick plants. We also sell complete fertilizer formulas containing both major and minor plant foods. In our area, the following plants are usually the first to show signs of trace element deficiencies. Manganese deficiency can be a problem with mountain ash, maple, and birch. Iron deficiency causes chlorosis in rhododendron, oaks, azaleas, and many other plants common to our landscapes. If yellow leaves and stunted growth appear on any plant, be sure to have the problem diagnosed by one of the Michigan Certified Nursery Specialists at Wedel's. Bring in a small branch of the plant with leaves attached and one cup of soil from the root zone, then apply the prescribed product to return your plant to good health. George Wedel

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