Hi Gardeners
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| Hardy hibiscus |
It’s steamy hot here today, and wet, wet, wet. Finally, we are getting rain-everyday. It’s like monsoon season but the gardens are
loving it. Everything looks so lush and
perky. The grass is green and thick
again. Its amazing how fast things
recover after good rains. I have had to
dump water out of some pots but its still all good for me. But it could get a little less humid and a
bit cooler.
The hardy hibiscuses are in bloom, and the anemone, toad lilies
and snakeroot are beginning to bloom.
The dahlias seem to have grown a foot this week and are loaded with
flowers. Woodland nicotiana is blooming
everywhere now, it seeds itself around.
The jewelweed is full of flowers.
I have given up battling the morning glories and they are in bloom
everywhere too.
I’m still waiting for the first bloom from my Hawaiian hibiscus. It has buds but every day I have to remove Japanese
beetles from them. I don’t know why they
attract them. The beetles were late arriving this year, but they are making up
for that.
I am seeing few frogs this year but lots of baby toads now. I have been hearing the tree frogs calling
again after the rains and yesterday I saw one tiny green baby jewel of a tree
frog on the ramp railing. Hopefully he will fatten up on mosquitoes before
winter and won’t get on any plants I’m bringing inside.
Our duck has a nest in one of my flower beds, under some
bamboo. It’s close to the road so I don’t
know how successful she will be, but if a coon doesn’t find it we’ll try again
for baby ducks. She doesn’t give up.
It’s hard to believe it’s almost September. Where did summer go?
Time to think about those vacationing
houseplants
If you have plants outside for the summer like I do you may have a
month or more left before cold weather will force you to bring them
inside. But it’s time to think about
that big move and do some planning.
As it gets cooler we may forget about watering pots, do check
every day and water when needed. You may need to water less now though, so don’t
water without checking the pot.
The angle of the sun changes with the season. Are any houseplants getting too much or too
little sun now? It may be time to change
their position. Usually a little more sun
is tolerated now than when the plant was moved outside in spring because the
plant has adjusted its leaf tissue and the sun’s strength is less now. But if leaves look crisped or bleached move
the plant.
If plants need to be taken out of the ground and potted do that
now so they will have adjusted to pot living before being stressed by the
inside move. If the summer outside has
caused plants to outgrow or even split their pots, you may want to repot them
now. However, it’s sometimes better to
wait until spring to repot if you don’t want the plant to get any bigger during
fall and winter because a tight pot helps restrict growth. And you may not have
room for a bigger pot!
Plants often look very healthy outside at the end of summer but if
they don’t, check them over carefully for signs of disease and pests. Treat
them now so you don’t bring the problem inside and spread it to other plants.
If a plant needs pruning to shape it or so that it will fit
through the door, do that now. It gives
the plant a bit of time to recover before being stressed by the move.
If you bought plants over the summer that you will be bringing
inside have you thought where you will be putting them? Will you need grow light bulbs? Order them now. Grow light bulbs lose efficiency after a year
or two of use so you may want to replace them.
Will you need shelves, trays for beneath plants or hangers? Get them now. A sudden change in weather may bring
those plants inside sooner than you think.
Start paying attention to the weather. Most houseplants need to be inside before
nights regularly get below 40 degrees F, even if there is no frost. Hardier plants like geraniums, rosemary,
spider plants, and a few others can be covered to protect them from a light
frost, especially if it looks like the weather will get warm again. But
generally bring in plants before the first frost. Fall weather can be very changeable, it can
be 80 degrees one day and 30 the next so pay attention to weather forecasts.
I love it when the houseplants first come back inside because it
looks like a jungle in here. But I am
considering the fact that I may have too many houseplants and deciding whether
I need seven spider plants and 5 big jade plants and so on. You may want to think about that too. We could give them away, right?
Borage- Borago officinalis
Borage is an interesting plant that you may want to consider for
your garden. I have always admired it as an ornamental for the back of the
border. Borage has pretty blue edible
flowers and leaves, some medicinal uses and will attract tons of bees to the
garden. Butterflies also visit it. Other common names for borage include starflower, bee bush, bee bread, and bugloss.
Borage is native to the Mediterranean region as
many herbs are. It’s been cultivated for centuries; the Greeks and Romans wrote
about it. It’s an annual plant but it freely self-seeds and will generally
return each year to some spot in your garden.
In its native range it’s now being grown as a commercial crop, for the oil
pressed from its seeds.
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| Borage flower faded to pink |
Borage is a lanky plant about 3 feet high. It may need staking in the garden if not
grown among other plants that can support it. At the bottom of the plant the rough
oval leaves can be 2 feet long, they are smaller near the top of the plant, and
narrower. Leaves are arranged alternately on the stems. All parts of the plant including flowers are
covered with white bristly hairs. These
hairs may irritate some peoples skin and are the biggest drawback in consuming
plant parts.
The flowers are usually a true blue, star shaped with 5 narrow
petals. The sexual parts form a cone
shape in the center of the flower. Occasionally a plant has pink flowers but as
the blue flowers age they may take on a purplish pink color, which some people
may think was the original flower color.
There is a white flowered cultivar but why people would want that when
the blue flower is so pretty is hard to understand. Flowers appear abundantly
through the summer on clusters at the top of the plants.
Some people think the flower is fragrant, but I have never noticed
that. They do have a sweet nectar that children
can suck from a flower, and which bees absolutely love. Bees also take pollen from the plants. The plants are self-fertile, you won’t need two
plants to get seeds but like most plants they prefer cross pollination. Small seed pods form on plants after they
flower and if you don’t want the plant to spread seeds around the garden,
remove pods while they are still green.
Bees make a specially flavored honey from borage some people
really like but it’s debatable whether or not the honey may have some toxic
properties. In parts of Europe they are
now testing borage honey for the percentage of PA ( see below) that it has,
high PA percentage is not desirable.
Growing borage
Most gardeners will start this plant from seeds. It can be sown
right in the garden after danger of frost or started inside about 6 weeks
before the last frost. Simply sprinkle
seed on moist soil and cover it lightly.
Thin plants to about 18 inches apart in the garden. Plants flower about 8 weeks after planting.
Borage likes full sun. It
tolerates most soil types. It can grow in dry conditions and does not like wet
areas. The more water it gets the
floppier plants will be and when planted in moist climates or where regularly
watered it may need staking.
Uses of borage
Borage is often touted as a companion plant or said to aide the
flavor of tomatoes, discourage hornworms and other pests, improve the soil and
all manner of garden miracles. Most of
this is bunk, old wives’ tales. The one
good thing borage does for the garden besides add beauty is to attract
pollinators. This could improve the yields
of fruits and some strawberry growers start borage plants early so they’ll be
in flower at the same time as strawberries, attracting those needed
pollinators.
Borage has numerous culinary and medicinal uses. The leaves and flowers have a cucumber like
taste and both can be added to salads.
Flowers are often used as edible decorations on cakes and pastries and
floated in drinks. It’s used as a flavor in gin.
Borage leaves are used in soups in Europe and in the German green
sauce, Grüne Soße. In Italy they are added to the fillings in
ravioli and other pasta dishes. It is used to flavor some pickles. Borage is used fresh, as the dried herb has
little flavor.
Medicinally borage has a long history and many uses. (However, borage does have some toxic chemical
properties and should be used cautiously.)
Borage is used to cure depression by soaking flowers in wine and giving
the wine to sufferers. Infusion of the
flowers is used for PMS and hot flashes, for gastrointestinal cramps and colic
and for fever. It is also used for bronchitis, as a blood purifier and as a diuretic.
The seeds of borage are pressed to make an oil. The oil has long been used for skin
conditions such as eczema and for
cosmetics. However commercial production
of the oil is now being done because the oil is high in gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), and other healthy fatty acids. It is used as a dietary supplement and for
every condition imaginable now.
If you are trying one of the wonderous
miracle cures going around for the product, (supposedly cures RA, ADHD, alcoholism,
diabetes, asthma, wrinkles, among other things) make sure the borage oil you
use is certified PA free. PA stands for pyrrolizidine
alkaloids, which are found in borage seed oil and which are toxic to the liver
and carcinogenic. They can be removed to
make the oil safer but there’s no scientific basis for most of the “miracle”
uses.
Cautions
As mentioned above borage contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids as well as other substances that are toxic. These toxins can harm the liver, cause cancer
and birth defects and may cause bleeding disorders. You’ll see much argument on
herbal sites about borage safety with many dismissing any harm the plant could
cause. This is foolish because the plant
has been well studied and there is danger in using too much of the product,
especially seed oil that has not been purified of PA. Home herbalists cannot remove the toxin.
If you are using borage flowers and
leaves in cooking, there is probably little harm done. Still I would suggest pregnant women not eat
it and small children’s intake should also be watched.
With seed oil and things like medicinal
tinctures of plant parts great caution should be used. Pregnant and nursing women should not use them.
Keep them away from children. Seed oil should
be certified PA free and home pressed oil should not be consumed by anyone,
although it may be used in modest amounts on the skin. Even the purified oil may cause excessive
bleeding during surgeries and may interfere with prescription and over the
counter medications. Tell your doctor if
you take herbal remedies with borage in them.
Borage is an ancient herb with many
uses and it’s a beautiful garden plant that pollinators love. Try some in your garden.
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| Yellow jacket |
Are you having bee problems?
In late summer many gardeners are besieged by bees and desperate
to get rid of them. Bees and wasps often
get more aggressive in late summer and their populations have built up to large
numbers. If you are having bee problems
click on the link below where there is an article I wrote previously on identifying
and dealing with bees.
Tomato hornworms
Those big green “worms” you find eating your tomatoes in your
garden came from a rather pretty moth that you probably didn’t mind in your
garden. The fat green caterpillars are
known as tomato or tobacco hornworms.
These little buggers can go from eggs to tiny caterpillars to huge fat
caterpillars 4 inches long and as big around as your thumb in a matter of 3
weeks. To grow that fast they eat a lot
of your tomato plant, preferring leaves and green fruit.
Tomato hornworms have a large curved spine or hook on the upper
side of the rear end that can be either red or black, depending on the
species. The caterpillars start out a
lighter, yellow green color but soon their green bodies are the same shade as
tomato leaves. Tomato hornworms are
hairless, and the body is marked with a series of white v shaped markings and
tiny black lines that look like stitches.
Along the bottom edge of the caterpillar are round spots outlined in
gold that almost look like grommet holes.
To confuse predators there are two round markings on the hook or rear
end that look like eyes.
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| Manduca sexta |
The tomato hornworm life cycle
There are two species of moths that lay eggs on tomatoes that turn
into the munching destroyers, tomato hornworms. Manduca quinquemaculata is the tomato hornworm, whose caterpillar
has a black horn and Manduca sexta is
the tobacco hornworn, whose caterpillar has a red horn. Both types eat tomatoes. In some areas both
species of moths and caterpillars of both hook colors are present.
The moths that produce hornworms are often called sphinx or hawk
moths. They are large, up to 6 inches in
wingspan, fat bodied, brown mottled moths, sometimes marked with brighter
yellow or orange. The adult moths do not
eat tomatoes, they sip nectar from a variety of flowers.
Like many moths, hawk moths are generally active at dusk. They lay
single pale green eggs on the undersides of leaves of tomato, pepper, eggplant
and potato plants and weeds in the same family such as nightshade and
horsenettle. While the caterpillars
occasionally eat these other plants, they prefer tomatoes.
Tomato hornworms are usually noticed about the first week of
August and they generally feed for a few weeks before falling to the ground.
The caterpillars burrow into the ground and turn into pupa. The pupas are brown, hard, shiny, worm-like
things with a curved “handle” on the front end, generally found buried in a few
inches of soil.
In northern states there is generally only one generation a year,
in the south there may be two generations. The tomato or tobacco hornworm over
winters as a pupa. Moths may come from
warmer areas in the spring to lay eggs also.
While tomatoes are their favorite garden plant hornworms will sometimes
eat peppers, eggplant and potatoes. And
of course, they also eat on tobacco plants in the south.
Finding hornworms
The first sign you might notice of the tomato hornworms presence
is green or blackish green pellet-like excrement under and on plants. There will be lots of bare stems and partly
eaten green tomatoes, particularly at the top of the plant. Hornworms rarely
eat ripe tomatoes. In the last week or so of the caterpillar stage their
appetite is enormous, and the damage becomes very noticeable. The caterpillars may have been on the plants
for weeks. Caterpillars do move from
plant to plant if the plants are close.
It takes a sharp eye to spot the culprit as tomato hornworms are
perfectly camouflaged as they lie on tomato stems. Smaller hornworms may hide on the undersides
of leaves. Stay still and quiet and you can sometimes trace them by their
munching sounds. Usually they are found near the top of plants.
Tomato hornworms will not kill a tomato plant although the damage
can look bad for a while. They do
destroy a lot of young fruit if left unchecked. There are usually only a few tomato
hornworms per plant. To find the
hornworms scout each plant carefully and look right above any piles of
greenish-black caterpillar poop. They
are more easily found in the early morning or evening when they are most active
Control of tomato hornworms
Tomato hornworms have few natural predators although chickens
sometimes eat them. They are filled with
tomato foliage, which is poisonous, although a chicken eating one or two
doesn’t seem to have any problems. Here
are some ways to control hornworms.
Handpick them and squish them. If you are squeamish about handling
tomato hornworms you may be able to pay a kid to look for them. They do not bite or “sting” humans and the
hook is harmless.
Use insecticidal soaps formulated for garden plants or use a Bt
product. These only kill caterpillars. Or
you can use a garden insecticide safe for food plants. Insecticides with carbaryl, spinosod,
permethrin, or bifenthrin will work.
Read and follow label directions carefully.
Till the soil in the fall to bring pupa to the surface to freeze
and rotate the area where you grow tomatoes each year.
If you notice a rather sluggish tomato hornworm with small white
projections all over it leave it alone. These
are wasp cocoons. The Braconid wasp lays its eggs on living hornworms; they
feed on hornworms, weakening them and then turn into the little cocoons which
are on the caterpillar. Each cocoon will
turn into a wasp which lays eggs on more caterpillars, keeping their numbers in
check.
Tomato hornworms are excellent fish bait. If you are a fisherperson you may want to
check the tomato plants before you head to your favorite fishing hole.
How to help a flooded landscape
I guess the recent rains here after a dry summer have me thinking
about flooding. This year has been wet in many parts of the United States and
many homeowners are having trouble with flooding or water standing on the lawn
and garden areas. And for some areas the worse part of the year for flooding-
hurricane season is near. While dry
conditions can be harmful to plants conditions that are too wet can be equally
bad if not worse for the landscape. Here
are some tips to help you deal with landscape plants that have received a
little more water than they like.
First try to drain the water away from your lawn, trees and
ornamental plants if it’s possible. You
may have to dig a trench to a roadside ditch or another place to let water flow
off. If you have a place to safely pump
it you can also use a sump pump, irrigation pump or even a fountain or pond
pump to remove water. Pay attention to
where the water will flow as you pump or trench it off. It’s not fair to send it to a neighbor’s
property unless the neighbor agrees to allow it.
Try to drain off the water as soon as possible. Even 24 hours of standing water can affect
plants, some types of plants more than others.
If some part of the plant remains above water chances are better than if
they are totally submerged, but root damage will begin in soaked soil soon
after flooding. Even if there is no
water visible on the surface of the ground soil that is totally saturated will
cause root damage to plants. Roots need
air spaces in soil or they simply drown.
If you dig a shallow hole in the soil and water pools there, your soil
is saturated and needs draining.
Of course, there are cases when there is nothing you can do to get
rid of the water but wait and hope. In
some cases, the plants will make it through, in other cases be prepared to
replace some of your landscape. If you
have flood insurance, check with your policy holder to see if landscape damage
is covered.
Lawn grass
Grass that is totally under water for more than 48 hours will
probably die. Warm, sunny conditions,
while beginning to dry the ground, will hasten grass death if water can’t be
removed. Grass only partially submerged
will last longer but totally saturated soil leads to rotting of the grass roots
and if the condition lasts a week or so, the lawn may die.
Bluegrass, the most common Midwestern lawn grass, has some
tolerance to flooding while perennial and annual rye is less tolerant. Bentgrass, common on golf courses, is
tolerant. After you can get to the grass
dig a small clump to check on it. If you
see firm white roots and bases of the leaf stems, (crowns) the grass may make
it. Black or brown mushy looking roots
and crowns mean the grass is dead.
If silt and debris were deposited on the lawn during the flooding
the chances of lawn grass surviving may be less. A small layer, less than an inch, may not
impact the lawn much unless it is heavily contaminated with harmful substances
such as salt, oil and gas, but a deep layer of mud or debris will kill the
grass. Try to rake or shovel it off.
If the grass dies and you suspect contamination of the soil, seed
a small area with annual rye grass, which will germinate quickly and grow if
the debris isn’t contaminated. Then you
can seed with more expensive lawn grass.
If the ryegrass doesn’t grow well you may have to scrape off the
contaminated soil down to the original soil, removing the dead sod, before re-planting.
If your grass seemed to make it through the flood it will benefit
from fertilizing with nitrogen, especially if it is looking yellow or pale
green. Use a lawn fertilizer without any
weed killers or insecticides for this.
Follow the label directions or use about 3 pounds per 1000 square
feet. Unless your soil has really dried
out, don’t water the fertilizer into the soil as is normally done, it should
dissolve in contact with wet soil.
As long as the soil is wet, limit traffic on the lawn so that the
soil doesn’t get compacted or rutted.
You may even have to let it get a little longer than usual before
mowing. If you do, only take off a third of the grass blade on the first
mowing. If it needs to be shortened
further wait a few days then mow again.
Keep the grass blades about 3½ inches long. Never use a weighted roller on the lawn when
it’s wet to “flatten” it. This will
cause serious soil compaction and limit the growth of grass roots.
Trees and shrubs
Generally, trees and shrubs will take a few days of flooding, if they
are not totally submerged, without problems.
Shrubs and small trees that are covered by water will probably die if
the water doesn’t recede in 2-3 days.
Some species may be harmed after 24 hours of submergence. Species of trees that typically grow in wet
or bottom land areas such as willows, river birch, black gum, red maple, black
ash, cottonwood, swamp oak and so on will generally have few problems with
flooding.
Some species of trees will not do well if the ground remains
saturated or they are in standing water for more than a few days. Redbuds, flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), sugar maple, white oak,
hickory, pine, spruce, cedar, junipers, and most fruit trees are examples of
trees which really suffer from wet feet.
If you cannot drain off the water around them you may expect a weakened
or dead tree.
Trees that have had their roots too wet for too long will often
begin to wilt, or will fail to leaf out, or drop their leaves. The symptoms are similar to being too dry,
because the rotted roots cannot transport water to the rest of the tree. Trees that survive may appear yellow or pale
green. Use a wait and see approach for
trees and shrubs that have been flooded.
Give them a little time to recover before deciding they are dead. They may take longer than normal to leaf out
if they were not actively growing before the flood.
Fertilizing surviving trees may help them recover. Many nutrients are washed out of flooded
areas and damaged roots have a difficult time efficiently collecting nutrients
that are left. And this seems like its
counterintuitive, but if the weather turns dry later in the season water the
trees and shrubs because their damaged root systems may make them more
susceptible to death from drought conditions.
Toppling trees
In
water-soaked ground only a small amount of wind may topple trees, even large
trees. One side of the root ball usually remains in the ground with the other
tipped up out of the ground. With
smaller trees you can sometimes wench the tree upright and stake it, if you can
find solid ground to put a stake in. If
done right away many of these trees will recover.
If the
tree is large or there’s no way to stake it, you should remove the tree. Some species of trees will continue growing
with part of the roots in the ground, but they will never be healthy trees. You could try cutting the trunk off a few
feet above ground and then pushing the root ball back into the soil. Some trees will the regenerate from the
roots, but not all species do this, and it will be a long slow process. Uprooted shrubs that are hard to stake might
benefit from this.
Ornamental perennials
There are, of course, some perennials that like wet
conditions. But most common garden
perennials, mums, daylilies, iris, poppies, sedums, hosta, roses, lavender,
peonies and so on don’t like waterlogged soil or being submerged. If you cannot drain water away from them you
stand to lose many of them in just a few days. You may want to wade into the water and lift
your favorites right out of the ground.
Pot them somewhere drier and wait for better soil conditions to re-plant
them.
As with trees and shrubs use a wait and see attitude with your
perennials after the water goes down and give plants a little longer to break
dormancy if they were dormant when flooded.
Some may recover slowly from just a bit of live root system that’s
left. And like lawns and trees
fertilization of flooded perennials may speed recovery.
If you suspect that flooding may occur again you may want to
replace the dead perennials with plants better suited to wet conditions or
install a drainage system. Plants that
are called “rain garden” plants usually survive short periods of flooding or
saturated soil.
Vegetables and small fruit
Some vegetables that are flooded can be replanted after the soil
has dried to reasonably moist conditions.
(If the soil crumbles apart after you clench a fistful of it and then
release your hand, it’s probably ready to plant.) Most mature plants will not recover if they
have been submerged a few days.
Perennial vegetables like rhubarb and asparagus may need to be
replaced if they were submerged in water for more than 48 hours or if there is
standing water or waterlogged soil for more than 3 days.
Strawberries that are flooded for more than 48 hours will probably
die and need to be replaced.
Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and grapes will not stand being
submerged for more than 4 days in standing water, maybe less. As with perennials if you can get the fruit
plants out of the ground and hold them somewhere until the water drains you may
save them.
Any fruit or vegetables that were in
contact with flood water shouldn’t be eaten as they may be
contaminated with soil borne disease bacteria.
Stay out of the garden until the soil has dried out to avoid compacting
the soil. Raised beds will help prevent flooded
plants in the future if your garden is in a low spot.
After a flood the gardener should assess the landscape to see how
likely a future flood will be. Drain
tiles, ditches to carry off water, pump systems, raised beds, or moving gardens
to higher ground should be considered.
Too much water is usually just as bad for plants as too little and there
is generally less time to deal with the situation. Planning ahead is your best insurance.
Apple Scones
This is a good treat for after school or good for breakfast
too. As soon as it cools enough to bake
I’ll be making a batch. Scones are like dense cookies. This makes 16
scones. They can be frozen after they
cool.
Ingredients
2 cups flour
½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons apple pie spice
1 large apple peeled, cored and finely chopped- Granny Smith, Honeycrisp
or McIntosh work well.
½ cup pecans, finely chopped (walnuts can be used)
2 eggs
1/3 cup cold butter, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons maple syrup (artificial is ok)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a copper or Teflon
non-stick sheet. Preheat oven to 375
degrees F.
Combine dry ingredients with butter in a food processor or mixing
bowl and blend until crumbly.
Add apple pieces and pecans and blend well.
Lightly beat 1 egg. Add egg,
milk, maple syrup and vanilla to dry mix and blend just until combined. Don’t overmix.
Divide dough in two and pat each portion out on the cookie sheet
in a circle shape about 8 inches across.
Beat the other egg with one tablespoon water. Brush tops of dough with egg mixture.
Bake dough until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in center
comes out clean, about 15 minutes.
Cool scones and then cut each circle into 8 wedges.
Scones are excellent served with butter or apple spice soft cream
cheese.
I hope your
holiday weekend is fun and safe!
Kim Willis
And So On….
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