37 Things that tell You're Addicted to Gardening

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

1. Your neighbors recognize you in your pajamas, rubber clogs and a cup of coffee.
2. You grab other people's banana peels, coffee grinds, apple cores, etc. for your compost pile.
3. You have to wash your hair to get your fingernails clean.
4. All your neighbors come and ask you questions.
5. You know the temperature of your compost every day.
6. You buy a bigger truck so that you can haul more mulch.
7. You enjoy crushing Japanese beetles because you like the sound that it makes.
8. Your boss makes "taking care of the office plants" an official part of your job description.
9. Everything you touch turns to "fertilizer".
10. Your non-gardening spouse becomes conversant in botanical names.
11. You find yourself feeling leaves, flowers and trunks of trees wherever you go, even at funerals.
12. You dumpster-dive for discarded bulbs after commercial landscapers remove them to plant
    annuals.
13. You plan vacation trips around the locations of botanical gardens, arboreta, historic gardens,
    etc.
14. You sneak home a 7 foot Japanese Maple and wonder if your spouse will notice.
15. When considering your budget, plants are more important than groceries.
16. You always carry a shovel, bottled water and a plastic bag in your trunk as emergency
    tools.
17. You appreciate your Master Gardener badge more than your jewelry.
18. You talk "dirt" at baseball practice.
19. You spend more time chopping your kitchen greens for the compost pile than for cooking.
20. You like the smell of horse manure better than Estee Lauder.
21. You rejoice in rain...even after 10 straight days of it.
22. You have pride in how bad your hands look.
23. You have a decorative compost container on your kitchen counter.
24. You can give away plants easily, but compost is another thing.
25. Soil test results actually mean something.
26. You understand what IPM means and are happy about it.
27. You'd rather go to a nursery to shop than a clothes store.
28. You know that Sevin is not a number.
29. You take every single person who enters your house on a "garden tour".
30. You look at your child's sandbox and see a raised bed.
31. You ask for tools for Christmas, Mother/Father's day, your birthday and any other occasion
    you can think of.
32. You can't bear to thin seedlings and throw them away.
33. You scold total strangers who don't take care of their potted plants.
34. You know how many bags of fertilizer/potting soil,/mulch your car will hold.
35. You drive around the neighborhood hoping to score extra bags of leaves for your compost
    pile.
36. Your preferred reading matter is seed catalogs.
37. And last but not least: You know that the four seasons are:
    
    • Planning the Garden
    • Preparing the Garden
    • Gardening ~and~
    • Preparing and Planning for the next Garden

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Hummingbird – No wait – It’s a moth!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I was outside this weekend and noticed what I thought was a hummingbird. It was early evening and I was surprised the “hummingbird” let me get so close. Upon further inspection, I saw that it was actually a large moth that looked like a hummingbird in its size, shape and movement. It also had a long proboscis that was fully extended and it was sipping nectar from flowers on our patio.

If it looks like a humming bird and acts like a hummingbird – but is a moth - it is correctly called a hummingbird moth.

These belong to a family of night flying moths called Sphingidae. They are of no real concern when moths but the species pictured here (tomato hornworms) can be devastating as caterpillars when they attack tomatoes and other garden plants.

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Fire Blight Occurring On Pear Trees

Saturday, May 7, 2011

A bacterial disease called Fire Blight showing up on pear and apple trees. Fire Blight actually infects the tree during the bloom stage in early spring. The disease itself overwinters in cankers and starts growing in the spring. The bacteria will ooze from disease cankers and then is spread to blossoms or twigs by insects. Bees actually spread the bacteria from bloom to bloom and from tree to tree during the spring of the year.

On pear trees, the young twigs and branches die from the terminal end and appear to turn black as if they were burnt by a torch. The end of the affected branch may bend and resemble a shepherd’s crook.

On apple trees, the same symptoms occur except that the dying branch tips will turn a deep reddish brown color instead of a black color.

Not only will this disease show up on the terminal growth, but if it is allowed to remain on the tree, it can spread to the twigs and even later on to the fruit itself.

On the twigs, a canker often forms that girdles the twig at the base of an infected fruit spur. The infected twig will grow in a hooked form and may have a shiny or oily appearance in the summer. Milky or brown material may be seen oozing from the twig in hot, humid weather.

On the fruit, Fire Blight will first show up as a water-soaked area and later will produce an ooze. The fruit eventually turns brown, shrivels up, mummifies, and then turns black.

Fire Blight occurs more prevalently when we have moist conditions in the spring at the time our pear and apple trees are blooming. It requires a favorable environment when temperatures are between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit and high humidity conditions are occurring.

Some pear tree varieties are more resistant to Fire Blight than others. Fruiting pear varieties that show good resistance to Fire Blight include Orient, Carrick, Waite, and Warren.
Ornamental pear varieties such as Bradford are also moderately resistant to Fire Blight but it can occur on them during favorable weather conditions in the spring. Bradford pears do not get typical Fire Blight symptoms. Infected Bradford Pear tree leaves turn a rust color and appear scorched and spotted. Portions of the leaf remain green.

Preventative sprays applying a material called streptomycin sulfate can be made in early spring at the time the trees begin to bloom to prevent infection. Streptomycin sulfate must be applied beginning at the time the tree has about 10% of the blooms open and sprays must be made at 5 day intervals (every two to three days during wet conditions) throughout the bloom stage until the blooms begin to shed off.

The best measure that you can take to prevent this problem from reoccurring on your pear and apple trees again next spring is to prune out the infected growth and get these infected branches away from your trees. Prune out affected branches at least 6 inches below the sign of infection. Dip your pruning shears in 70% isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) or a 1 part bleach to 9 parts water solution to disinfect your pruning shears between each cut.

Avoid heavy nitrogen fertilization during the mid to late summer period around your pear and apple trees. Highly fertilized trees that are producing a lot of new growth late in the summer seem to be more susceptible to Fire Blight the following spring.

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5 Natural Pest Repellents

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

• Ants: Sprinkle cinnamon, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, or baby powder in problem areas.

• Cockroaches: Sprinkle equal parts of baking soda and confectioner's sugar in problem areas.

• Mice: Place cotton dipped in peppermint oil near problem areas. Used kitty litter is another repellent.

• Mosquitoes: Mix 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water and place on your deck or balcony. Dab lavender oil on your wrists and elbows.

• Fleas: Small sachets of crushed mint placed around the home will discourage fleas. So will a potted sweet basil plant.

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Book Review: Year ‘round gardening interest

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Nonstop Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide to Smart Plant Choices and Four Season Designs by Stephanie Cohen and Jennifer Benner, Timber Press, 2010.

The Nonstop Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide
to Smart Plant Choices and Four Season Designs

As avid gardeners we are always hoping that our gardens will show year-round colorful interest. We experiment with non-natives, hope the weather conditions in Indiana don’t drown, burn, or freeze our plant selections, and critters don’t abuse our gardens by using them as their dinner table. Last year’s drought did some serious damage to my gardens, as with many of yours, which is requiring us to start over. I began looking for a book that would assist me in “doing it differently,” and I believe I found it with The Nonstop Garden. Note: In 2008 I reviewed another book by Stephanie Cohn titled The Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer. I found that book to be especially helpful to me, so I feel confident that one would not go wrong by following any recommendations she makes in The Nonstop Garden.

The Nonstop Garden consists of four chapters. Part One: The Nuts and Bolts explains the benefits of the nonstop garden along with easy design strategies. Part Two: The Main Attractions covers trees, shrubs, and perennials. Part Three: The Supporting Cast discusses bulbs, annuals, tropicals, edibles, and vines. Part Four: Finishing Touches offers suggestions on ornamentation, containers, structures, and seasonal beauty and interest.

Chapters two and three offer hundreds of winning plant entries that readers might choose for their gardens. The selections are headed by the plant’s common name with information on hardiness zones, peak seasons, plant conditions, and any problems the plant may likely face. The plants recommended are considered by Ms. Cohn and Ms. Benner to be top -notch, offering stunning beauty and minimal maintenance. The book has ten easy-tofollow garden designs interspersed throughout the book (e.g., winter, wildlife, native, woodland, cool-colored, wet sites, gold-colored, vibrant, scented and parking strips).

Another feature that I especially liked was the additional hot topic sections. “Recipes for Success”, “Perennial TLC”, “Establishing Climbers”, Battling Bugs”, “Getting Bulbs Off to a Good Start” are a few of the themes in which the authors offer personal insights and recommendations for successful gardening choices.

The book concludes with a peak performance chart of plants, a list of invasive plants, a hardiness zone chart, glossary, references and resources, and an index. Of course, the photographs are gorgeous and creative, the designs are well-thought-out and easy to envision and understand, and the witty, no-nonsense approach navigates readers throughout the book so you know experienced gardeners have shared with you their knowledge and creativity so you are fired up to create your own gorgeous garden. You soon learn that The Nonstop Garden is a very useful guide to gardening in all four seasons.

The authors advise that we “garden smarter, not harder” and “nonstop gardens are better gardens because they require less maintenance, provide continual beauty, allow more creativity, and encourage diversity.” This book is specific—a garden that it is beautiful and interesting all year long. I’m glad I bought it and look forward to applying their expertise to my gardens.

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Does Garden Humor Exist?

Sunday, April 11, 2010

In searching the web, I have concluded that it comes in two flavors: almost funny and mildly humorous. There is also lots of repetition, cross-linking, and way too many sites that are no longer active, though the ones I found are 99% in very good taste, at least. So, I have done a bit of the ‘dirty work’ or the ‘digging’ for you. (Heh heh.)

One of the larger repositories of quips and quotes is the Garden Digest. At the center of the long scroll-down page of ‘jokes’ is a table with monthly gardening chores…do not be fooled…this is for where they live, Zone 9 in California. Otherwise, there are some good ones embedded here.

The next one is actually a list of humorous short articles, http://home.golden.net/ ~dhobson/ and several other ‘humor’ sites link to this one. It also has a table of many links, some of which could be interesting.

Probably the best find turned out to be a column that is published in several places, and the ones I read were enjoyable. This is not a list of jokes or stories, rather, pieces with a humorous slant and interesting observations about gardening, food, and foibles. In a piece about ‘locavores’, the author describes the ‘100-inch diet’ (rather than the 100-mile diet) and has many excellent exceptions: http://www.rakishwit.com/ is the starting point, and the particular article will be easily seen.

I plan to go back and read several more. The tagline is, The award-winning garden-variety humor column by John Hershey, "America's least knowledgeable gardening expert." So, Mr. John Hershey, you are my new go-to, humble, so-called non-expert.

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The Flowering Dogwood

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The flowering dogwood (Cornus Florida L.) is Missouri's official tree. The tree is small in size, rarely growing over 40 feet in height or 18 inches in diameter. The dogwood sprouts tiny greenish-yellow flowers in clusters, with each flower surrounded by four white petals. In the fall, the upper part of the leaves turns scarlet or orange and bright red fruits grow on the tree.

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