Hi
Gardeners
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| Calla lilies |
I am so mad right now.
My daylilies, Asiatic and oriental lilies are just starting to
bloom. I walked out to the bed farthest
from the house to get some pictures and found that last night the deer had
eaten all the buds and flowers off the daylilies and some of the smaller
Asiatic lilies. It’s time to kill some
deer! They haven’t bothered those up by
the house- yet. I took down my twinkling
solar lights after the tulips were done; I guess maybe I need to put them back
up.
It’s not like the deer don’t have anything to eat right
now. Everything is lush from all the
rain we’ve been having. My flowers were
just dessert I guess. They left the buds
on the tall trumpet lilies; I hope they don’t notice them. I thought lilies were supposed to be
poisonous- I hope they were poisonous.
Well besides the lilies the beebalm and buddleia are
beginning to bloom. My pot of rain
lilies is blooming. Echinacea and helenium are blooming and the clematis are
going strong. The roses are blooming
still too. The groundcover sedums and
hens and chicks are blooming. The fields
are covered with ox eye daisies and by the large pond a wild sweet pea is blooming
all over with deep pink flowers this year.
We got the first ripe tomato out of the garden
yesterday, with more soon to follow.
It’s an Early Girl from my cheater plant, the extra-large plant I buy
every year to have early tomatoes. We
will actually have tomatoes while the lettuce is still good this year. I usually have some by the 4th of
July but we are a bit early this year.
This one was cut in wedges, smeared in salad dressing and wrapped with
bacon. (We seldom eat bread). It was
deep red, juicy and delicious.
My mulberry tree has been full of birds and the birds
here are going through 2 suet cakes a day at my feeders. All the babies are coming to the feeder and
the parents feed them suet. The
sunflower seeds are going fast too. It
gets expensive feeding them this time of year but I enjoy seeing all the
different kinds of birds that come for the food.
I had another animal problem today. My fault.
We had a litter of baby kittens in the barn under the chicken nest
boxes. A duck had decided to share the
space with them and laid a pile of eggs under there too. The kittens were starting to explore and I
thought I would put a little dry cat food under there for them to find. That was a bad move. I came out this morning to find the duck eggs
had been raided and eaten by a coon. I
quickly checked for the kittens and they were still there, unharmed it
seems.
I think the coon smelled the cat food and went looking
for it. I shouldn’t have put any near
there. I’m not too upset over the duck eggs; they weren’t sitting tight on them
yet. Mama cat decided not to take any
chances however and moved her kittens up by the deck, in the tall daylilies
there. (They can’t get under the deck.) Now I have kittens toddling across the deck
that I have to worry about stepping on. One keeps trying to follow me. Gizzy
was way too interested in them too. He
gets along well with some cats but I’m worried he’ll be too rough on the baby
kittens. They are toy sized. I’ll have
to watch him carefully. Hopefully momma
cat will move them along somewhere else soon.
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| Baby downy woodpecker getting fed suet |
Next
week the 4th of July holiday falls on Tuesday and I won’t be putting
out a newsletter. Look for one July 11th.
Mulberry
trees
I personally don’t find mulberry fruit very appealing,
it’s pretty bland. But the birds and a
lot of different animals consider mulberries as candy. If you enjoy bird watching, plant a mulberry tree;
just make sure it’s a good ways from your clothesline or where you park your
car. And some people enjoy the fruit
themselves.
The red mulberry Morus
rubra is native to Eastern North America from Canada south to the gulf. It was once very common and widespread but is
now listed as endangered in Canada, Connecticut and Massachusetts and
threatened in Michigan and Vermont. If
you like attracting butterflies the red mulberry is the host or larval plant
for the Mourning Cloak butterfly.
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| White mulberry |
The white mulberry Morus
alba is native to China and was brought to North America in an attempt to
start a silk industry because silk worms feed on the leaves. It has escaped cultivation and has
naturalized in many places. Some areas
consider it an invasive plant. There
are, however cultivars of white mulberry such as ‘Pendula’ that are used as
landscape plants.
Both mulberries are smaller trees growing to about
35-40 feet high at maturity. They prefer
full sun conditions in good loamy soil but will grow in partial shade. Red mulberry is more tolerant of shade and
often found in the wild in the partial shade of larger trees. In the wild both are often found along
streams and on the edges of woodlands, white mulberry is more common in open
sunny fields. White mulberry has been used for erosion control. Trees have rounded crowns, with abundant
branching and branches close to the ground.
Branching is alternate.
Both mulberries have oval leaves to lobed leaves, lobed
leaves usually are on younger branches.
Red mulberries leaves are rough feeling to the touch and dull green,
while white mulberries are smoother and have a glossy surface. Red mulberries have a hairy back surface and
a finely serrated edge. White mulberry
leaves have deeper serrations on the edge and are larger than red mulberry
leaves. The bark of red mulberry trees is flat scales of red brown, often young
trees have a reddish sheen when wet.
White mulberry bark has raised ridges with a yellow- tan inner bark
showing between the ridges.
The flowers of both mulberries are inconspicuous long
catkin like clusters of greenish white and are wind pollinated. Here’s the confusing part. Some references list both species as being dioecious,
having male and female flowers on separate trees. Others list both species as having separate
male and female flowers on the same tree.
Some references state the trees can be either type of flowering. The pollen of mulberries is very allergenic
so if you have allergies you may not want a tree nearby.
Personally I have never seen a mulberry without fruit,
which would indicate it’s a male tree.
All the mulberries I have known always have fruit in season, which means
they were all female and I never saw the male, or they have both male and
female flowers. I know my current tree
has both sexes of flowers. It’s a white
mulberry.
Anyway in both red and white mulberries the flowers
turn into long blackberry like fruit in early summer. Despite its name most white mulberry trees
fruit ripens to deep red or purple. Red
mulberry fruit ripens to purple- black.
A few white mulberry trees have white or pink fruit when ripe. The fruit is sweet and perfectly edible. Beware it can stain hands and things the
berries land on, as can the poop from birds eating the berries.
Identification of mulberries can be tricky as the two
species can hybridize although no one knows how common this is. There are other species of mulberry that are
sometimes brought in as cultivated plants.
You can start mulberries from seed quite easily,
although they need a period of cold stratification. Mulberry cuttings also root easily. Most gardeners will want to start with a
small tree, which will grow rapidly and fruit in just a few years. Some nurseries sell mulberry trees, usually
white mulberry cultivars.
Mulberries have few pests or diseases. They only need fertilization in the poorest
soils and are moderately drought tolerant once established. While they will grow in partial shade
fruiting is best in full sun.
Uses
of mulberry
The fruits of mulberry have been used for centuries in
jams and jellies and to make wine. They
can be eaten fresh too. They can be
turned into pies and cobblers. To
collect the fruit people often put something under the tree like a sheet and
then shake the tree. Birds adore the
fruit and animals like squirrels, raccoons, opossums also like them. Box turtles will eat the fallen fruit.
Mulberry syrup was often used to hide the flavors of
medicines. Mulberries were used in both
Native American and Chinese medicine.
Fruits were used to cure constipation and other digestive problems, for
urinary tract problems, in the treatment of fatigue and weakness, and for blood
sugar control among other things.
Mulberry juice was used to treat baldness and graying hair.
The inner bark of red mulberries was separated into
fibers that were woven into clothing by Native Americans. Shoots were woven into baskets. Mulberry wood makes good fence posts and the
wood is used to smoke meat and give it a sweet pleasant taste.
The shoots, leaves and unripe fruit of mulberries is
mildly toxic and may result in severe digestive upsets if eaten.
Talking
about ticks
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| Black legged or deer tick Wikimedia |
Ticks have been in the news a bit lately; it seems like
tick populations are up in many states.
There are also some rare tick borne diseases that are popping up more
frequently. In a well maintained yard
and garden gardeners aren’t very likely to experience ticks. However if you garden near woody, brushy
areas or unmown fields, are clearing land or like to walk in wilder areas you
may have a dreaded tick encounter.
There is at least one species of ticks in every US
state. Ticks won’t however, be in every area of a state. While every tick
doesn’t carry disease some tick bites can infect you with some very serious or
deadly diseases. Lyme disease is the
disease people hear about the most and probably the most common disease ticks
carry. Lyme disease can have serious
long term effects on people. But there
are many more serious diseases ticks carry.
Most tick borne diseases have no cure, supportive care
is needed to prevent complications. Tick
diseases commonly begin with flu like symptoms and fever and progress to affect
various organs. Encephalitis and
arthritic pain are common in many of the diseases. Some cause anemia or cardiac problems. Rashes of various forms, including the famous
bulls eye rash of Lyme disease, are associated with many tick borne diseases. Deaths
can occur with many tick diseases.
Tick borne diseases can be hard to diagnose, especially
if the sick person doesn’t know they were bitten by a tick. Because a lot of tick diseases require the
tick to feed for a while on a human to transmit the disease, many people do
know when they get a potentially bad tick bite.
If you find a tick that is engorged, full of your blood, on you, it’s a
good idea to keep the tick and have it identified. If you get any flu like symptoms or a rash shortly
after the encounter notify your doctor you were bitten by a tick.
To save the tick for identification, which requires an
experienced, trained person, put them in a jar of alcohol after removing them
(see below) or freeze them in a plastic bag.
Call your local health department or your County Extension office to
find out where to take or send a tick for identification. Tell them if you were
traveling when you acquired the tick and where. Identifying the tick and knowing the area the
tick came from can help narrow down what diseases the tick may be carrying.
Here are some of the diseases ticks cause in the US and
the species of ticks that transmit them.
Not all species of ticks and or all of these diseases are found in every
state. Some state will have several
species of ticks. The brown dog tick is
found in every state.
Anaplasmosis, blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) and western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus)
Babesiosis- blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis)
Borrelia mayonii blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis)
Borrelia miyamotoi- blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis)
Colorado tick fever -Rocky Mountain wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni).
Ehrlichiosis- lone star tick (Ambylomma americanum)
Heartland virus infection- lone star tick (Ambylomma americanum)
Lyme disease blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) and western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus). 30,000 cases a year.
Powassan disease blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) and the groundhog tick (Ixodes cookei).
Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis - Gulf Coast tick (Amblyomma maculatum).
Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis), Rocky Mountain
wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni),
and the brown dog tick (Rhipicephalus
sangunineus).
STARI (Southern tick-associated rash illness) the lone
star tick (Ambylomma americanum).
Tickborne relapsing fever (TBRF)
Tularemia- dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis), the wood tick (Dermacentor andersoni), and the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum).
364D rickettsiosis (Rickettsia
phillipi, proposed) the Pacific Coast tick (Dermacentor occidentalis). This is a new disease that has
been found in California.
The lone star tick, Amblyomma
americanum also causes an unusual allergic reaction to red meat. After people have been bitten by this tick
they may have a severe allergic reaction when they eat red meat.
Removing
a tick
The CDC recommends removing ticks as soon as possible,
the longer a tick stays on you the more likely it will transmit a disease. They also recommend that you do not use
Vaseline, nail polish or similar products to smother them or use a lighter or
fire on the tick. Smothering takes too long and fire is too dangerous.
Do not yank the tick out quickly, if you break it in
two and leave the head imbedded it can cause an infection. Use a pair of tweezers and grab the ticks
head as close to the skin as you can.
Pull up with a slow steady movement.
You can buy a special tick removal tool that looks like a little spoon
with a notch in it. If you frequently
have to remove ticks you may want one. After removing a tick clean the area
with alcohol or soap and water.
If you do break off a tick head in your skin flush the
area with alcohol and then use some antibiotic cream. Dispose of pulled ticks in a cup of alcohol,
a jar with a tight lid or flush them down the toilet.
The
tick life cycle and habits
Ticks have 4 life stages, egg, larvae, nymph and adult.
Larval ticks are very small and only have 6 legs. Nymph ticks have 8 legs and look like small
adult ticks. Adult ticks are the largest
and are able to mate and produce eggs. Eggs are generally laid on the ground by
female ticks in the thousands.
After hatching ticks require blood meals at every stage
of life. Some ticks will feed on the
same species of animal throughout their life stages; others require different
species of animals at different stages.
Ticks can feed on any warm blooded creature including birds and they
also feed on reptiles and amphibians in some species, but they have their
preferred species. Humans aren’t a preferred tick food but they readily accept
us to feed on in the adult and in some species, nymph stages.
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| Life stages of the Lone Star Tick Photo from the CDC |
Ticks don’t jump like fleas and they don’t fly. What they do is climb up on grass or weeds
and hold out their first pair of legs to grasp any animal passing by. They sense movement, animal body heat or
breath, vibrations and other things depending on the tick species in order to
find their preferred host species. When they haven’t eaten in a while ticks can
be very small and hard to see, especially in the larval stage. They are the size of a period in this
article.
When it finds a body to feed on ticks may attach
quickly in some species, or they may crawl on the host looking for a good
spot. They seem to like hairy spots with
thin skin. It can take 10 minutes to 2
hours for a tick to firmly attach itself and begin feeding. The tick inserts a feeding tube into the
victim’s skin and then produces a glue-like substance to keep it there. Some ticks also have barbs on the tube. The
front of the tick head will seem to be buried in the skin when it’s
attached. The salvia of the tick is
injected into the wound and this has an anesthetic in it which keeps the host
from feeling the tick feeding.
Ticks can feed for several hours or even days. As they fill with blood they get larger and
easier to see. Some adult engorged ticks
will be as big as a penny. When full
they drop off, maybe lay some eggs, digest their meal and then look for another
one. The longer a tick stays on you
feeding the more likely you will be infected with a disease so it’s important
to remove them as soon as possible.
Treating
the yard and garden
A product that kills ticks is called an acaricide. There are several on the market. Read and
follow the label directions carefully and only use them if you know ticks are
on your property. Many of these products
are harmful to birds and aquatic animals and can harm beneficial insects
too. They should only be used near human
habitation. A professional pest control
company often uses high pressure sprayers that penetrate debris and weeds for
better coverage.
Many people recommend getting guinea hens (a type of
poultry) because they like to eat ticks.
They do eat ticks but won’t get them all. Guineas roaming in brushy areas where ticks
are found are also food for other animals.
They are also very noisy and your neighbors may prefer the ticks. Chickens and ducks will also eat ticks when
they find them, but be aware that ticks can also feed on birds too. Poultry alone is rarely sufficient to
completely control ticks.
Opossums
and ticks
You may have read on the internet that opossums help
kill ticks. This is true to some
extent. Opossums groom themselves like
cats and eat ticks that attach to them; scientists estimate they may eat 5,000
ticks a week in heavily infested areas.
They don’t hunt for ticks, but it may be a good idea to let them live
around your property if they aren’t bothering anything else so they can act as
a tick magnet.
But just like guinea hens don’t count on a possum
population to totally control ticks. And
there may be other reasons that discouraging possums would be wise. Horse owners know opossums can transmit
diseases to horses so they often eliminate them from barns.
Keep
deer and mice away
Feeding the deer is a good way to bring ticks on your
property. Deer are excellent transporters
of ticks. Anywhere deer congregate
should be avoided and walking on narrow trails deer make through fields is also
a good way to get ticks.
Mice are the hosts for some types of ticks in their
early life stages. Clean up any areas
that attract and hide mice and try to eliminate them from your home and yard. You
can buy tubes filled with treated nesting material for mice. It doesn’t kill the mice but when they carry
the nesting material away and sleep in it the ticks are killed. One such
product is Damminix Tick Tubes.
Treat
dogs/ pets with flea products that also repel and or kill ticks
Dogs can get many of the same diseases from ticks that
people do. And dogs are the frequent way
ticks are brought inside or to the yard after they have been exploring in the
woods and fields. Check your dog after
every field trip. If you live in tick
infested areas use one of the many products that kill and repel ticks on your
dogs from early spring through fall. If
your dog gets sick after being fed on by ticks see a vet.
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| Dog Tick Wikimedia commons |
Other pets can get ticks too. Don’t use dog tick repellents on other
animals like cats because many are toxic to other species. Check with a vet
before applying tick products to any animal. Cats usually groom them off
themselves. Pet tortoises have been
known to pick up ticks. Rabbits also get
them.
Horses on pasture often get ticks and can get several
diseases from them. Some fly repellents also repel ticks. Remove ticks found on horses like you would
for a human. Check with a vet if horses
seem ill after being bitten by ticks.
Keeping
ticks off you
Use a repellent that contains 20 percent or more DEET,
picaridin, or IR3535 on your exposed skin.
If you expect to run into ticks do not take risks with home and
“organic” remedies. These products also
protect you from mosquitoes and biting flies.
You can also treat clothing and things like camping gear,
with a product containing 0.5% permethrin. Don’t use this on your skin. These products remain through several
washings. You can also buy pre-treated
clothing and some of those items will repel ticks for a long time. Permethrin
must be applied to clothing 48 hours before it’s worn and allowed to dry. Using permethrin on shoes and other clothing
reduces your chances of getting ticks by about 70% according to research.
Try to stay on mowed/cleared paths, in the middle of
them preferably, and out of deep grass
and brush. Around the home keep the lawn
short and brush and weeds cleared away.
Pick up any litter or rubbish that can hide mice and or ticks. Make a 3
feet barrier of wood chips or gravel between wooded or brushy areas and the
lawn or garden.
Wear long pants, socks and shoes when working or
walking in areas where ticks may be. Tuck pants into socks or boots. If you are bending down pulling weeds or
other chores wear long sleeves with a wrist band.
When coming in from working or walking in tick prone
areas immediately inspect all your skin surfaces, including body cracks and
crevices and your scalp. Ticks tend to
climb upward and like warm hairy places on the body best. Check your scalp. You
may need to use a mirror. Strip and take
a shower with hot water if you can.
Inspect anything you carried inside like a jacket or backpack for ticks
too. And check your dog if it’s been out
there with you.
Throw your clothes in the washer and wash them with HOT
water. If you have one of the machines
that doesn’t let the water get very hot you’ll need to dry clothes on high heat
for 60 minutes or more. If you can’t
wash the clothing put it in the dryer for 60 minutes on high heat.
Remember most gardeners won’t have to worry about ticks
in regularly tended gardens. And don’t
panic if you do get a tick bite. Most
people will not get a disease from the bite.
But if ticks are common in your area it’s best to protect yourself and
be on the look-out for them.
Keep
kitchen and bath products out of the garden
It simply amazes me what gets passed around as garden
tips. Every imaginable food, beverage,
spice, and cleaning product seems to have found some miraculous use in the
garden. Even human medicines are being
side tracked to the garden. Most of these
folk remedies are harmless but useless.
Some however can harm plants or even people and pets. The remedies are often touted as organic or
safe although some are neither.
Often these garden remedies are generated because
someone has misread and/or misapplied some research published on a promising
new product using something similar to a product found in the home. For example there are tips floating around
now that cornmeal, the kind you bake with, can kill weeds. This came from studies using corn gluten
meal, a different product made from corn you won’t find on grocery shelves. Some studies found that corn gluten meal will
suppress the germination of some weed seeds.
There is at least one commercial product on the market featuring corn
gluten meal but the remedy has never really taken hold among professional
growers or farmers because it isn’t that effective and there are many drawbacks
to its use.
People reading the research came to the wrong
conclusion that sprinkling cornmeal in the garden would suppress or even kill
weeds. It doesn’t. What cornmeal does is mold and attract mice
and other animals. There is currently
some debate among researchers as to whether corn gluten meal is actually an
effective weed suppressor anyway. It
seems to be ineffective in some areas.
The corn gluten meal has a high nitrogen content, which makes things
grow well, but it may not be so great for the environment when excess nitrogen
leaches into the water supply and forms nitrates. Here are some links that give both sides of
the corn gluten debate.
Remember corn gluten meal is different from the cornmeal
found in your kitchen. Don’t use
cornmeal in the garden.
Let’s talk about some other household things used in the
garden
Epsom salt- this is probably one of the most
misused products in the garden ever. It
is recommended freely and often as a remedy for killing bugs, weeds, fungus
infections, plant diseases, as a fertilizer, to make fruit or vegetables taste
different, to make flowers prettier and more abundant, to reduce transplant
shock and to make the sun come out on a rainy day. It doesn’t do any of these things, despite
all the testimonials. Every research
study has found it useless. Epsom salt
is simply magnesium and sulfur. The only
thing it could do is correct a magnesium deficiency in the soil, which is rare
in the home garden.
Epsom salt is not harmless either. If too much magnesium builds up in the soil
it can alter how other nutrients in the soil can be used by plants. Other nutrient deficiencies may occur with its
use. Some plants are sensitive to it
being used on leaves and will suffer damage.
Vinegar is probably the second most recommended
useless product for the garden. It’s
purported use as a weed killer comes from some research using a very strong
commercial concentration of vinegar, not the kind that comes from the grocery
store. Mixing edible vinegar with
baking soda, dish soap, Epsom salt, beer or other things doesn’t make it any
more effective. Straight vinegar applied
to the foliage of some plants may kill the foliage, but won’t kill the
roots. Kitchen vinegar won’t harm some
weeds. Vinegar won’t cure plant fungal infections like powdery mildew, fungal
infections can’t be cured, only prevented.
Commercial strength vinegar if you can find it, is difficult
and dangerous to work with, it can cause severe burns and eye damage. Any type of vinegar may harm plants you don’t
want harmed if it splashes on them. And
that means you can’t use vinegar to kill bugs on plants, not only will that not
work but it will harm the plants.
Cinnamon is another useless home remedy. While cinnamon does have some anti-microbial
properties sprinkling it on plants or the soil will not do anything. It won’t kill insects or cure fungal problems
or keep deer away.
Coffee and coffee grounds are both fairly
harmless but also pretty much
useless as a remedy for anything. Coffee
isn’t a balanced fertilizer although it may contribute some nitrogen. Coffee doesn’t
kill insects. Coffee grounds add some
organic matter to soil. They don’t even budge the soil pH (make it more acidic)
in any significant way. The only thing
pouring coffee on plants does is give them some water.
Sugar of any kind is not needed by
plants, they make their own. It does not
help plant growth. What it does is
attract ants and other insects and animals.
Eggs and eggshells have very limited
uses in the garden. Eggshells can be
added to compost or the garden without harm.
But they don’t release calcium very quickly, it takes years for shells
to release calcium in any appreciable amount, therefore they won’t cure a calcium
deficiency. Crushed egg shells also do
not deter slugs. Videos have been made
with slugs crawling right over them without harm. Whole eggs take years to decompose. They are a magnet for animals, like coons and
opossums, which can damage your plants digging them up.
Using a spray of raw eggs on plants to deter deer and rabbit
damage is only mildly effective and it smells terrible. Do not use a raw egg spray on edible plants,
you may get salmonella or other food borne diseases.
Dish soap is full of chemicals. It should not be considered an organic
product. Just check the label.
Insecticidal soap sold for garden use is vastly different from dish
soap, which is actually a detergent. Insecticidal
soap is made with fatty acids which don’t harm plants. While dish soap is
harmless to you, it harms plants by stripping them of the waxes and fats which protect
plant leaves. Stripping the protective
coating on plant leaves makes them more susceptible to diseases and
insects. Detergents don’t kill all insects
and the product must contact the insect for it to work. Eating leaves with a residue won’t kill
insects. Dish soap doesn’t cure fungal infections or any other plant
disease. Adding other things to dish
soap doesn’t make it any better.
Dish soap sprayed on plant leaves may also react with
sunlight to burn the leaves. Some plants
are quite sensitive to even small amounts and may be severely damaged or
killed. The only good use for dish soap
in the garden is to put some in water and knock or pick insects off plants and
throw them into it.
Baking soda is another useless remedy in the
garden, regardless of what it’s mixed with.
It doesn’t kill fungal diseases, or insects.
Beer has only minor benefit to gardens. Beer can be used to trap slugs but that’s the
extent of its usefulness in the garden.
It isn’t fertilizer; it doesn’t keep bugs, including mosquitoes,
away. In fact it may attract mosquitoes
and other insects. It isn’t a tonic for
plants nor can it cure any plant disease.
Mouthwash, cheap, blue, or otherwise is mostly alcohol. It might
kill insects if it contacted them but won’t kill them as a residue on plants.
It doesn’t keep mosquitoes away. It doesn’t cure fungal disease. It can harm plants by stripping off
protective oils and waxes from leaves and may burn the leaves when alcohol
sprayed leaves are subjected to sunlight.
Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is produced by
plants as a defense against insects. But
crushing an aspirin and mixing it with something and spraying your plants doesn’t
kill insects. It doesn’t cure plant
diseases either. In humans it doesn’t
cure anything either, it just eases pain and inflammation. Does it help plant
pain? Who knows. But weed (marijuana)
growers will tell you it will kill your plants if sprayed on them.
The miraculous effects some people have by applying some of
the above folk remedies can be attributed to a placebo effect, or giving the
plant more water in a mixed solution or just chance. And folk remedies aren’t cheaper if they do
no good, they are wasted money.
Zinnias- Summer Sizzle From South of the Border
Are you growing zinnias in your garden? You may have seen
zinnias growing in your mother or grandmothers garden. Zinnias fell out of favor for a while with
home gardeners but they are back with a vengeance. The new and improved varieties are carefree
and excellent for beginning gardeners and children.
Zinnias are excellent as bedding plants for masses of color,
in the back of mixed borders for late summer color and for cutting
flowers. Some of the newer, compact
varieties look nice in containers and provide continuous color in hot spots.
Zinnias make excellent cut flowers; the more you cut the more they bloom.
Zinnias are annual plants, meaning that they complete their
life cycle in one year. Native to
Mexico, zinnias are not frost hardy, but they will grow anywhere where they
have a few frost-free months. Zinnia leaves are dark green, with a long pointed
oval shape and feel rough to the touch.
Zinnia flowers come in every color and color combination
imaginable except blue. The flowers range in size from 1 inch across to 6
inches across. Zinnias can have single
daisy-like blooms or very double, full pom-pom shaped blooms. Some zinnia varieties also have flower petals
shaped like narrow quills.
Growing Zinnias
Zinnias are one of the easiest flowers to grow from
seed. The seed can be sown in the garden
after all danger of frost or started indoors for earlier flowers. If grown indoors don’t start the plants too
early. Zinnias suffer a little from
transplanting and small plants recover faster.
Start the seeds indoors in a warm area about 3 weeks before your last
frost. Zinnia seed will germinate in
less than a week in the right conditions.
Or plant zinnia seed outside after the last frost, when the soil is
warm. Cover the seed lightly with fine
soil or compost and keep moist. Thin
seedlings or transplant your indoor seedlings to stand about 6 inches apart for
small varieties and 8-10 inches apart for tall types.
Zinnia seedlings are often available in nurseries for
sale. Ones that have started to bloom or
have gotten tall and spindly in a small cell pack should be avoided. Zinnias bloom in 6-10 weeks from seed.
Zinnias require full sun.
They thrive in hot areas as long as they get enough moisture. They like good rich soil and appreciate a
slow release fertilizer in the spring when they are planted and a booster shot
of fertilizer in mid to late simmer.
Zinnias need to be watered if there is less than an inch of rain each
week, or sooner if they appear to be wilting.
They will reward you with hundreds of colorful flowers for just a little
care.
If you are growing some of the older, heirloom varieties of
zinnias, a little pinching back in early summer will make them bushier and
produce side branches with more flowers.
Many new varieties already have a good branching habit. You can cut zinnias without a worry for
bouquets as this just encourages the plant to bloom more. Be careful to cut blooms though, not pull at
the plant to remove flowers as this may damage the root system. Deadheading, removing the old flowers before
they set seed will keep the blooms coming.
In late summer you may want to let some zinnias go to
seed. The seeds are easy to collect and
store for next year. Wait until they are
fully dry on the plant then clean out the old petals and other junk and store
at room temperature. Use clean dry jars
for storage or heavy duty plastic bags.
In mild areas zinnias often re-seed in the garden. You may not get
exactly the same flowers as the zinnias this year but they will be colorful and
who knows, you may discover something unique.
Zinnias worst problem in the garden used to be powdery
mildew, which they are very prone to getting in humid areas. Modern varieties are very resistant to
powdery mildew. Powdery mildew makes a
white powder on the leaves, which then dry up and die. Plants usually keep trying to produce flowers
but much of their energy is used replacing foliage and the dead foliage looks
awful.
Water zinnias early in the day so the foliage dries before
night, and try to water at the base of the plant. Make sure the plants are not too
crowded. Remove all of the dead foliage
after a frost and take it away from the garden. If you want to grow some of the
beautiful older varieties of zinnias you will probably need to protect them
with a flower fungicide, beginning in early summer.
Some Varieties
For low masses of color in borders and beds try the
‘Magellan’ series, which is available as a mix or several individual colors.
They have 4-5 inch double flowers on foot high plants. ‘Dreamland’ series are similar but
shorter. ‘Aztec Sunset’ has 2 inch
flowers of mahogany red and bronze on compact plants. ‘Profusion’ series of zinnia has single,
daisy like flowers on compact plants.
“Zowie’ has 3-5 inch flowers on 3-4 foot stems. They begin magenta pink and yellow, but
change to flame red and yellow as they age.
‘Big Red’ is big- a 3 foot or taller plant smothered in scarlet red 6
inch flowers. ‘Envy’ has unusual lime
green 2 inch flowers on 3 foot plants.
‘Candy Stripe’ is an older variety with white double flowers, variegated
with streaks of pink and red. ‘Oklahoma’
series has small 1-2 inch flowers, on 2 foot plants, excellent for cut
flowers. ‘Giant Cactus’ is an old
variety with large, 4-5 inch flowers that have narrow petals giving the blooms
a fluffy look. ‘State Fair’ is one of the
oldest varieties still on the market. It
has large double flowers in assorted colors.
I’m growing zinnias this year- how about you?
How to make strawberry jam without added sugar
You can make strawberry jam that is without added sugar, but
because the sugar in regular jam is what makes it thicken, you need to add a
thickener called pectin to get the jam to “jell”. While this jam is without added sugar it does
have some natural sugar from the fruit itself.
And this strawberry jam has fewer calories than regular jam, but is not
calorie free. Each tablespoon of jam
will have less than 10 calories.
Jam made with artificial sweeteners needs to be frozen or
refrigerated for storage. The long
cooking required to can jam for shelf storage would make the sweetener taste
bitter. This recipe calls for liquid
artificial sweetener, available at most grocery stores. The pectin called for can also be found in
grocery stores- they usually have a small canning section near the baking or
seasoning products.
Strawberry jam made with artificial sweeteners isn’t the
pretty red of jam made with sugar. To
make it more appealing some people opt to add red food coloring, although you
can leave it out without harming the recipe.
You’ll need 3 half pint containers with covers that can be
frozen or refrigerated safely for this recipe.
They don’t need to be sterilized but should be clean and dry. Freeze the
jam if it will take you more than 2 weeks to use it and just thaw one
container at a time. Keep thawed jam in
the refrigerator.
Ingredients
1 quart of
strawberries, washed with caps ( green top) removed.
3 teaspoons of
liquid artificial sweetener- do not use powders.
1 package of
powdered fruit pectin
1 tablespoon of
lemon juice
red food
coloring if desired
Crush the strawberries with a large spoon in a medium
saucepan. Add the rest of the
ingredients. Bring the mixture to a
boil, stirring constantly. When boiling
begins, time cooking for 1 minute, stirring all the time, then turn off heat. Continue to stir until you notice mixture
thickening, about 2 minutes. Pour into
your containers and freeze or refrigerate.
Have a happy and safe 4th of July
Kim Willis
“He who has a garden and
a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero
© Kim Willis - no parts of this newsletter may be used
without permission.
And
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