Tuesday, June 18, 2019

June 18, 2019- the year is half over

Peony lit by the sun.

It’s sad that half the year is over, summer solstice is almost here. (June 21).  After summer solstice the days start getting shorter again and we really haven’t had much nice spring or early summer weather.  That could change in a minute I suppose, but I am really getting sick of this gloomy, wet weather day after day.  Is this English weather?   

Weeds are rampant.  It’s hard to keep up with mowing because the grass keeps growing in the rain but it’s hard to mow when it’s raining, or the grass is too wet.  The wet weather is causing all kinds of plant diseases to pop up, I’m going to write about some below.  In our area lack of sun and the heat it creates have slowed plant bloom and development.

In my garden the clematis are now blooming, and more of the roses.  The lovely clustered bellflower a friend gave me last year has started to bloom. I am hoping it will still be in bloom when the evening primrose begins to bloom- it’s close to bloom- because the colors will be stunning together.

Baptisia is in bloom and weigelas.  Some early daylilies like the heirloom ‘Golddust’ are beginning to bloom.  The native wisteria is in bloom.  My hosta, after a slow start, are really getting huge this year, they like cloudy and wet.  

The sweet corn the deer didn’t munch is about 6 inches high.  There are some green tomatoes on my plants and baby peppers too.  As I mentioned before my spinach is going to seed far before it’s ready to harvest.  But the kale and romaine lettuce are just ready to harvest.  The cukes and melons are just sitting there waiting for more sun.

Are you feeding the birds this summer?  They really appreciate your help while feeding their babies. I am going through a case of suet blocks a week, and that’s letting the feeder go empty from time to time.  It does no harm to feed birds suet in summer, they use it to feed their babies. They won’t get gout or other things rumored in some places. It provides quick energy for them.  There’s a lot of discussion about fewer insects and I really do think there are less.  Feeding birds suet while they are raising young may help them raise those babies with fewer insects about.

I am also going through a lot of sugar water.  After the birds learned about the sugar water feeder I made from a chick waterer, they came to it in droves, many kinds of birds.  I also keep sunflower seed and grape jelly out for the birds.  I have my feeders where I can sit outside and enjoy watching the birds.  Feed the birds in summer and you’ll see species you will never see in winter.
 
Clustered bellflower in front

The deer discussion

I am getting sick of deer damage in my garden.  I have never had so much deer damage to my garden and from what I hear from my neighbors and other gardeners all over the US, this is a bad year for deer damage.  Usually deer damage is confined to winter and very early in the spring.  This year they are eating the lily buds and sweet corn in my garden among other things.  People tell me they are eating hosta, roses, shrubs, strawberry plants, broccoli, even flowers like petunias in containers.  They are wandering city and suburban streets as well as the countryside.  I have never seen so many complaints about deer.

I think it’s partly because the deer, at least around here, are used to eating farm crops this time of the year and the crops aren’t even up yet here- they just got planted. In some parts of the country farm fields are so wet they won’t be planted this year.  It’s not because the deer don’t have plenty to eat though.  I think they get used to certain things and when they don’t have them, they look for other interesting plants to munch.  And because there are fewer and fewer hunters every year and deer have moved into places hunting isn’t allowed, there are more and more deer.   

One thing I have learned through years of chasing deer from my garden and listening to people who also have deer problems is that there is no easy solution for deer problems and one remedy does not suit all gardens.  And deer quickly habituate to any solution short of shooting them.  So, what works one day to repel deer may soon stop working as they get used to it.

If you can fence a garden with 8-10 feet high fencing, you may keep out the deer but that’s awful expensive.  And it may not totally work either.  I was at an 8 feet high fenced community garden in Mid-Michigan one year where people told me deer were still getting into the garden and saw one leap the fence with my own eyes.  But generally, 8 feet of fence will keep them out.  This can be black netting, but that is easily ruined when deer run through it.

I like electric fence, that’s one or more electrically charged wires strung between fiberglass poles. You need the fence charger along with wire and poles, but it’s cheaper than a regular fence and much easier to install.  You can buy battery powered fence chargers (solar powered rechargeable batteries or batteries you purchase) or use an electric outlet to power them.

Electric fence doesn’t kill deer or even your dog. Even a small baby won’t be seriously harmed. Yes, it hurts for a second and startles you but it’s a pulse, not a continuous charge and won’t electrocute anything. You can buy units for pets that have a smaller shock and those will work for deer in most cases. A few pokes and animals- (including humans) learn to respect them. I work carefully around such a wire even when I know I turned it off, that’s how effective it is.

But as a yard perimeter fence, electric fencing isn’t always successful either.  If you live in a rural area deer may already know and respect such fencing but they also know how to creep under it and jump over it. If they are running from something they often run right through the fence, breaking it.

In an area where such fences aren’t common you may need to flag them, so deer and other animals easily see the wire.  Deer may need conditioning, that’s teaching them what the wire does.  You take little strips of foil and spread peanut butter on them, then fold them over the wire in various spots.  The deer sniff or lick the strips and get a poke.

I like to use electric wire directly around the plants I am protecting.  Deer are less likely to jump over it when they are jumping into a small confined area and you can lower the wire so it’s hard for them to wiggle under it or use a short decorative fence under it.  I have a small battery powered unit I can move around quickly. In my case the 2 d cell batteries the fence uses last 2 months or more.  It has an on/off switch so weeding and harvesting can be done. If electric fencing isn’t allowed as a yard fence in your area, it may be allowed inside the yard surrounding small areas like your garden.

Other ways to repel deer include the various deer repellents sold in liquid form.  These often smell horrible and I don’t want to use them on flower beds close to the house or vegetables. What’s the sense of having a beautiful flower bed you don’t want to get near? And some can’t be used on food plants.  These must be reapplied after every rain too. And using things like coyote urine around plants has the same disadvantages.  Many people have told me those repellents work well at first, but then deer get used to them.  They may be good for winter protection of evergreens if you apply them often enough.

Home remedies like Irish Spring soap have the same drawback.  They work for a short time, then deer get used to them. Some home remedies are laughable.  Epsom salts don’t deter deer nor does dish soap or red pepper.  Rotten eggs don’t bother them either. Who wants that smell in the garden? All of these things may deter deer for a few days because they are unfamiliar.  But as soon as they become familiar smells or wash off all protection is gone.

The idea of “marking your territory” with urine is also useless.  Deer that come into your yard are already used to human scent.  Like any sensible creature they might avoid eating a plant with urine on it, but urine on a plant isn’t very good for it either. And urine near a plant won’t give them a second thought.

Noise makers, radios left on, white flags waving in the dark, all of those things work temporarily.  When deer find out they don’t chase them or hurt them they cease being effective.  For several years I had strings of solar powered flashing lights (Christmas lights) on my evergreens in winter and it worked as a deterrent.  This year it didn’t work.  If you want to try things like this rotate them to something different every few weeks. Noise devices activated by motion may be the most reliable, but your neighbors may not appreciate it.  Those sprinklers activated by motion seem to work fairly well, but many people I know who used them have a problem getting them to work well.

Planting deer repellent plants among other plants doesn’t work that well either.  There are some plants deer won’t eat (according to legends), but that doesn’t mean they won’t eat the plant next to it.  Deer do not like to step into prickly plants so surrounding some plants with roses or other things might work, but then deer do eat roses.

You can try planting only crops and flowers deer don’t like, but here’s the thing, no one knows exactly what those things are.  Deer in some areas eat some things that in other areas they won’t eat. And some years it seems their tastes change.  I’m not going to provide a list of deer resistant plants because of that.  I had deer eat daffodils this year, which most places put on the “will not eat” list.

The rule of thumb is; deer will not eat plants you have a lot of and consider a weed.  Deer will eat the plant you spent a lot of money on or that is your favorite.  And they like to eat things just before they bloom or are ready to harvest. Protect those things.



Other things that will help prevent deer damage is to never feed the deer. Gardeners who feed deer are asking for trouble as deer do not understand the corn is for them but not the hosta.  For their own well being deer should not be fed, even in winter.  It disrupts their natural digestion and impacts their health because deer congregate at feed sources.  Feeding gets them used to human scent, sound and sight, which isn’t good for them or your garden.

Make sure your pet food dishes are inside at night.  Bird feeders should be hung high out of the reach of deer.  They like seeds and will even drink nectar out of hummingbird feeders.  Like the long legged rats they are, they will adapt to many types of food.

Allow hunting and encourage it in your area. Deer are not endangered in any way.  When there are too many deer in an area, they not only damage gardens and crops they start getting ill from diseases caused by close contact and over population. They destroy native plants and cause widespread damage to the environment.  They eat the young trees that are needed for forest regeneration and succession.  Too many deer are a serious problem.  Don’t worry too much about invasive plants causing extinctions of plants, worry about the native deer, which are a greater threat.

Some deer diseases may infect humans. Deer do get rabies, and now many states have deer with chronic wasting disease, a mad cow type prion disease that researchers think could be transmitted to humans and possibly mutate to become a human infectious disease.  Deer encourage the build-up of tick populations; ticks carry many human diseases.  Deer can carry TB to domestic cattle.

And there are all those car-deer crashes which kill many people in the US each year and cause billions of dollars’ worth of property damage and medical bills.  More deer equal more crashes.

We have been conditioned by Disney movies and other tales to think of deer as poor sad creatures that we displaced from their homes.  That’s far from the truth.  There are more deer now than there has ever been in the US and it’s because of humans moving into their “territory”.  Humans eliminate natural predators and provide excellent habitat of lawns, gardens and farm fields.  Humans often protect deer from hunting, and fewer people are hunting now anyway. Deer thrive with people nearby.

Even when I was a child it was rare to see deer anywhere but the most rural areas.  It was a treat and not a curse to see them. Now they are everywhere, in cities and suburbs.  Sure, they are graceful and pretty, and are just going about their lives, but they do need to be controlled, for their own sake as well as ours.  They are as destructive as rats and more people die from deer than rats by far.

Deer birth control has proved to be expensive, dangerous to the deer and not very effective. Hunting is simpler and more effective, and the meat could feed a lot of hungry people or pets.  A bullet to the head is more humane than being terrified by capture, penning up and handling to administer various birth control methods or move deer to other areas.  There is a high death rate from things like shock and broken legs in this practice. 

Using experienced “snipers” in densely populated areas might be needed, rather than allowing anyone with a gun to hunt in those areas.  But guns go off everyday in our cities and suburbs so that shouldn’t be a reason to keep deer from being hunted.

Nature intended deer to be controlled by predation so other species could share the environment.  It’s what is best for the deer population overall and best for the environment too. Encourage and allow deer hunting.  It’s the right thing to do.

Plant problems caused by wet weather

In many areas of the US we are experiencing one of the wettest spring-early summer seasons in years.  In some areas it’s hot and wet and in others cool and wet, but it’s been a wet season for a lot of us.  (Sorry, to those few who are in dry areas- wish we could send you some rain.)  Wet weather also comes with cloudy skies and both wet conditions and less sunlight can impact gardens in a big way.  Diseases and physiological stress on plants are widespread this year.

Many people are reporting yellowed leaves and plants that look stunted.  This is most common in cool wet areas.  This is usually a sign of nitrogen deficiency.  Rain can leach nitrogen through the soil out of the reach of plant roots.  Cool soil temperatures can keep plants from taking up nitrogen even if its in the soil.  Nitrogen is a nutrient that’s constantly fluctuating in the soil and when you get a soil test done the results won’t include the nitrogen levels. That leaves gardeners using their best judgement as to whether nitrogen is needed by their plants.

When you see yellowed leaves without green veins its usually a nitrogen deficiency.  (If leaves are yellow but have green veins its probably an iron deficiency.)  In this case using some nitrogen fertilizer on the affected plants can help them green up and start growing again. 

Nitrogen content of fertilizers is represented by first number on the bag. Lawn fertilizers which are primarily nitrogen can be a source of that nitrogen, just make sure they don’t include weed killers or grub control products. Blood meal can be a good organic source of nitrogen.  Use the nitrogen sparingly, too much nitrogen may keep some plants from fruiting or flowering well.  Use about half the amount recommended for lawns on vegetables and flowers.  You can always add a little more later if needed.

Garden fertilizers with numbers such as 5-10-5 are low in nitrogen and may add potassium and phosphorus that aren’t needed but if that’s all you have you can use them.

In some cases, the nitrogen deficiency corrects itself with warmer, drier weather. You may want to wait a bit to see if that happens in your case.  If better weather doesn’t green up the plants, they will need fertilizer.  Epsom salt cannot correct nitrogen deficiency and should never be used on deficient plants.

Wilted plants even when there has been plenty of rain may be a sign that the roots have rotted or that the soil is totally saturated, and plants can’t get oxygen from the soil.  This is often seen when gardens have been submerged by flood water for a few days or they are in a low spot that doesn’t drain well. It also happens to plants in containers without good drainage. There is not much you can do except add drainage or move the plants and hope plants recover.

Snails and slugs love wet weather.  Damage from them may increase when its wet and cloudy because they will be eating day and night.  If you have mulch around the base of plants like hosta, a favorite of snails and slugs, you may want to pull it back for a few days, so the soil surface is exposed.  This will dry it a bit and leave fewer places for pests to hide. 

Eggshells won’t work to repel slugs and snails, there are videos online showing them gliding right over them.  Diatomaceous earth won’t work when it gets wet, and just contact with damp soil will render it useless.  Salt only works if you sprinkle it on each slug. 

Beer can work to trap slugs but when it rains frequently the beer can get very diluted and less attractive.  (You put a flat saucer of beer near plants being damaged.)  Beer isn’t the best method to control slugs and it may attract pest animals like coons.  You can buy products that attract and kill snails and slugs but be careful using them.  They can be very toxic to pets and children.

Slug

Disease

Many plant diseases are more likely to occur in wet weather. Diseases caused by fungi are often troublesome.  This year gardeners are experiencing many of them.  For a plant disease to occur it needs a susceptible plant, the disease organism (a fungal spore or virus particle) and the right environmental conditions.

Botrytis or gray mold affects a number of garden plants in various ways and is generally found in wet weather.  There are many species of Botrytis.  It causes peony buds to rot, and sometimes other flowering plants lose buds and flowers from it.  Rose buds and flowers are affected by it. Seedlings can rot at ground level.  Soft fruit may mold.

Powdery Mildew is one of the most common diseases that favors wet weather.  The leaves and stems of your plants will first get yellow spots and then get a white dusty appearance, then begin to yellow and eventually leaves turn brown and papery and fall off.
Powdery mildew is caused by several different fungi species and occurs in a variety of garden plants from flowers to vegetables. It doesn’t kill plants in most cases but greatly weakens them.  Older plants and older leaves will get the fungal infection first.  New leaves will continue to form in most cases.
Crowded plants and plants growing in less than full sun are more susceptible. Cloudy days favor powdery mildew.  Temperatures between 68-80 degrees and high humidity with or without rain favor infection.  This disease is generally blown into the garden or carried in on plants or equipment.  It can also overwinter in soil or debris and emerge when conditions are right.
Fungal infections can’t be cured, only prevented.  Give your plants lots of space and keep weeds out so there is good air flow around plants.   Plant powdery mildew resistant varieties.   You can use preventative fungal sprays continuing every 7-10 days or as the label directs.  If you start spraying when you first notice any symptoms you may limit the spread of the disease and help plants continue to grow.
Conventional fungicides include Daconil, Bravo, Echo, Fungonil and Nova and you’ll want to look for one of these ingredients; chlorothalonil, azoxystrobin, trifloxystrobin, myclobutanil in garden shop brands.  Always follow label directions and make sure the product is for edible crops if used on them. Note: pesticide recommendations can change from state to state and year to year.
Organic fungicides include copper products, neem oil, Potassium bicarbonate (not sodium bicarbonate or baking soda) and products with sulfur.  As with conventional pesticides follow the label directions and use products labeled for food crops.
Home remedies like dish soap, baking soda, milk, Epsom salt, compost tea and so on won’t work and in some cases make the problem worse. 
When you spray a fungicide on plants use a forceful stream to try and get under the larger leaves and the undersides of leaves so all parts are covered. After rain events fungicides need to be re-applied.
Downy mildew is a serious disease of cucumbers and melons, and also damages squash and pumpkins. There is a downy mildew that affects impatiens and occasionally other plants.  It is different from powdery mildew, which is a common problem but less destructive. 
Symptoms of downy mildew are light green turning to yellow spots on the top of leaves and the bottom of the leaves will have black, water soaked looking areas, then a purple-brown dusty or dirty appearance to the bottom of leaves when spores appear.  Cucumber plants quickly seem to dry up and die. Downy mildew is carried to crops by the wind and usually begins in hot, wet or humid weather.  Once in your garden it will spread rapidly. 
Cucumber plants rapidly die from the disease.  Melons have greatly reduced production.  Squash and pumpkins survive but grow more slowly and are less productive. Impatiens plants usually die quickly too.  
The best thing to do is to prevent downy mildew by applying protective fungicides.  Look for home garden fungicides that have chlorothalonil or mancozeb in the ingredients and apply as directed.  If caught early fungicides may help crops that are lightly infected. Heavily infected crops won’t be helped. There are no organic products that are effective for downy mildew.  Baking soda, Epsom salts, dish soap and so on are useless. 
If you can’t bring yourself to use a conventional fungicide on plants infected with downy mildew then pull the plants once they are infected and bury them away from the garden or put them in plastic bags for the landfill.  Don’t mess around with home remedies, allowing the disease to continue spreading.  Don’t compost infected plants at home.  Don’t plant in the same spot next year and make sure all plant residue is removed from the garden in the fall.  Next year look for varieties that are resistant to downy mildew.
Late Blight of potatoes and tomatoes is a serious disease that can occur in wet weather.  It generally occurs late in the summer as the name suggests but when conditions are right it can occur at any time and in any size plants. Favorable conditions are when temperatures have been between 50-80 degrees for at least 5 days and over ten days there has been more than 1.2 inches of rain.  Cloudy days and high humidity increase the risk when combined with the above conditions.


In these conditions, gardeners should inspect tomato and potato plants frequently or start protective fungicides.  Late blight causes dark gray-black wilted leaves, sunken black areas on stems and black areas on fruit, both green and red or potato tubers. It progresses rapidly and kills plants in 7-10 days. There is no cure once it starts.  All infected plants need to be pulled quickly and destroyed.  They must be buried deeply or bagged in black plastic, set in the sun for several days and then sent to the landfill.  Do not compost them.
If you suspect late blight contact your county Extension office.  They may be able to give you a definitive diagnosis and discuss disposal.  This is especially important if you live close to commercial tomato and potato farms.
Tomato anthracnose or fruit rot is one of those nasty fungal diseases that are so hard to control.  This disease also affects the leaves, stems and roots of tomato plants but it’s the infection of the fruit that is most problematic. The disease frequently begins with temperatures over 80 degrees and rainy weather. Once again, there’s no cure, only prevention.
Tomato’s that are ripe or nearly ripe develop what is called “watersoaked” spots, sunken, shiny areas with a number of small black spots in the center that eventually create a large black spot and the fruit rots around and under the lesion. The black spots produce salmon colored spores which can infect other fruits around them.   When you cut a tomato with anthracnose you often see a black area on the meat inside below the outer spot.  The rotted spots may also grow a secondary fungus; gray, fuzzy mold if left long enough.  Tomatoes can have one spot or several.
Anthracnose ofnfruit

Tomato anthracnose makes the lower leaves on the plants get yellow spots with a tan center, and they eventually wilt and turn gray-brown.  The stems may also develop spots.  These foliar symptoms are very similar to other fungal disease of tomatoes and tomato plants can have more than one fungal disease going at the same time.  In fact, diseases like early blight weaken the plant and make anthracnose more common.
Early Blight, Bacterial Speck, Septoria leaf spot and Bacterial Spot are other tomato diseases that are all influenced by rainy, wet weather.  They are not as serious as late blight but can really limit fruit production, especially if they begin early in the season.  They have similar symptoms which include spots on leaves and yellowed leaves that eventually fall off. Like all fungal diseases they cannot be cured, only prevented with fungicides. 
Mulching and keeping plants off the ground by staking or tying them helps prevent fungal diseases.  Good airflow is important so don’t crowd plants. Some weeds harbor the disease so keep your garden weeded. Water at the base of the plant and try to keep plant foliage from getting wet.  Tomatoes require well drained soil and wet soil often results in bigger problems with fungal disease.
Here’s more information about tomatoes;

Lawns can be affected by wet weather too.  Leaf spots, melting-out, slime mold, dollar spot, rusts, summer patch, and necrotic ring spot are lawn diseases that pop up in wet weather. Here’s a good source for lawn disease ID and solutions. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7497.html

Fruit trees and small fruit are also affected by wet weather.  If you spray your fruit trees for diseases and insects you’ll need to spray more often, after every heavy rain. Rain and cold weather may limit pollination on some fruits. Strawberry fruit may get gray mold ( Botrytis).

By the Light of the Moon- a Moon Garden

Here’s something lighter to read.  I hope it inspires you.
Do you ever go out when the moon is full and walk in its pale lovely light?   Perhaps you strolled to your garden, only to find it closed up and hiding in the darkness.  You can however design a garden that will welcome your nocturnal wandering or resting.
A proper moon garden delights all the senses and makes the night and the garden a magical place.  Moon gardens aren’t hard to do and even a novice gardener can accomplish the task.  Properly done a moon garden is as easy to maintain as any garden and can look great in the daylight also.
Moon gardens use light colored plants that float in the darkness, fragrance that wafts on the evening breeze, and the sounds of tinkling wind chimes or bubbling water to delight all the senses. A place to sit or lie in this dreamy spot is also necessary. 

Locating the Moon Garden

You won’t need a rocket to find a place for your moon garden, just a patch of soil here on earth.  A good location for a moon garden is close to the house, but slightly secluded, so you can enjoy it in privacy.  Perhaps a little used porch or patio can become the center stage.  It is to be enjoyed by dim light - the moon, or softly lit by strategically placed low voltage lights.  Avoid areas where streetlights or harsh overhead light intrudes. Moon gardens need to be at least partially enclosed for best effect. This can be by a hedge, dark wall or fence.  This will make you more comfortable when the air is brisk, insure your privacy and show your plants to their best advantage.
You will probably want most of the moon garden open to the sky. Moon gardens can be in the shade but the range of plants you can use is much greater if they have the advantage of sun in the daytime.  And at night the twinkling stars and graceful curve of the moon overhead will make the moon garden more enchanting.
 
White rose of Sharon at night
What to grow in a moon garden

Moon gardens need plants with white, pastel or silver foliage or flowers.  The flowers should remain open at night.  These plants can be perennials for your area, or you can use annuals, tropicals, or a combination.  The goal is to have something of interest through at least 3 seasons, so a combination of plants is generally used.  Fragrance is highly desirable, but it should be a fragrance you adore.
 Some suggestions for moon garden plants will be listed next.  Remember that the plants must be hardy for your zone, treated as annuals, or brought inside when frost threatens.  They must be watered and fertilized according to their needs.  You should have low, medium and tall plants to give depth to the design.  Darker plants between the light colored ones are needed to enhance the backdrop.  Vines, shrubs and trees should be incorporated in larger moon gardens.  Using plants with blues and reds in the foliage or flowers along with the whites and pastels will keep your garden looking nice in the daylight and provide the dark contrast at night.
For spring color choose white tulips, [they fold at night but still look good], hyacinths, iris cristata ‘Tennessee White’, and sweet-smelling white narcissus.  White lilacs will add fragrance and late spring color for larger gardens.  Nothing beats a white crabapple or flowering cherry for a cloud of white on spring evenings. Many white flowered dogwoods are on the market, one called  Elegantissima’ has white flowers in spring and the leaves are edged in white for even more interest.  White flowered magnolias and viburnums are other choices for larger gardens.
For early summer; white roses, such as ‘Iceburg’, shasta daisies, and white petunias, peonies, stocks, cleome, evening primrose, Four O’Clocks, coreopsis ‘Snowberry’, white salvia and white bearded iris are good choices.  For midsummer you can add nocturnal daylilies like Hemerocallis citrina, which is fragrant and has pale yellow flowers, white Asiatic lilies, white coneflowers, such as ‘Fragrant Angel’, white phlox,-‘David’ night flowering Jessamine or jasmine, and hydrangeas. 
For shimmering silver in the moonlight add; artemesia, Lamb’s Ears, mugwort, wormswood or silver thyme.   Thyme ‘ Silver Posie’ is  low growing with each leaf edged in silver and is fragrant when you step on it.
For late summer try; white asters, anemones, chrysanthemums, oriental and hybrid lilies which come in many wonderful white and pastel colors and are highly fragrant.  A favorite oriental lily is ‘Casa Blanca’, which is outstanding for a moon garden.  Ornamental grasses with white plumes such as Cortaderia ‘Sunningdale Silver’ are also good for late fall color.
For moon gardens which are in the shade during the day try; white astilbe, white impatiens, white tuberous begonias, foam flower, hosta with white variegations, Goatsbeard, Cardiocrinum giganteum and Clethra.  The silver Japanese ferns such as ‘Ghost’ and ‘Silver Falls’ are stunning in the moonlight.

 Nicotiana sylvestris or ‘Only the Lonely’'.  T
No moon garden is complete without two plants, the moonflower vine and woodland nicotiana ( Nicotiana sylvestris) or ‘Only the Lonely’'.  The moonflower vine has huge heart shaped leaves and equally huge and fragrant white flowers like a morning glory flower, which open at night. It will need to be started inside in the north because it takes a long time to begin blooming.  Woodland nicotiana is a close cousin to smoking tobacco and the huge leaves on this plant make it best in the back of the border.  It sends up tall stalks of white, dangling, trumpet shaped flowers with a delicious fragrance. Both of these plants attract sphinx moths to the garden.
 
moonflower
Don’t forget to add the finishing touches, a bubbling water feature or a melodious but gentle wind chime.  Sound carries further on a still evening and you want subtle noise that won’t drown out the tree frogs and the wind in the trees.  Add the clink of ice in your favorite beverage and you are ready to enjoy your moon garden.

Don’t use mothballs in the garden

For many years I have worked to discourage people from using “mothballs” to repel animals from their homes and gardens.  I am now seeing articles online encouraging people to use them in the garden for all sorts of things from deterring Japanese beetles to scaring away squirrels.  Mothballs are about the farthest thing imaginable from a safe, natural way to repel pests.  I personally wouldn’t use them in the house even to discourage clothes moths.
Mothballs contain one of two (sometimes both) highly toxic chemicals, naphthalene and Para dichlorobenzene.  These chemicals are classified as hazardous and a possible carcinogen by the EPA. There are sometimes other hazardous chemicals in mothballs too. Pesticides, which mothballs are, (they are not a repellant, they kill insects), are labeled as to how to use the product and by law they cannot be used any other way.
Mothball boxes, if you read them, do not list the use of the product outdoors, or to repel animals. So, if you use them in this way you are breaking the law. If you instruct people to use them in a non-approved way you are also breaking the law.
But breaking the law is not the most important consideration. These chemicals do serious damage to humans and other animals exposed to them. They can be absorbed through the skin, inhaled, or ingested. The amount of damage done varies as to exposure and who is exposed, but severe and fatal consequences can occur.
The chemicals in mothballs can cause hemolytic anemia, damage to the liver and kidneys, neurological damage, cataracts and damage to the retina. Children, pets, people who already have liver or kidney problems or some forms of inherited blood disorders are at special risk. Deaths have occurred from naphthalene and Para dichlorobenzene exposure in both children and adults.
Using a lot of mothballs in an attic or crawl space may allow toxic fumes to enter the living area and just breathing those fumes can be hazardous. When people place mothballs outside in an attempt to discourage animals, they are exposing themselves, children and pets to possibly fatal reactions. The chemicals also pass through the placental barrier and a pregnant woman who handles mothballs or even exposes herself to the fumes for an extended period of time can damage her baby.
Soil that is contaminated with dissolved mothballs is also toxic; plants should never be consumed if they are grown in soil contaminated by mothballs. It’s not known how long the contamination remains in the soil.
If you can smell the mothballs you are inhaling vaporized poison. If a child or pet swallows just one mothball it can cause serious problems and the poison hotline should be called immediately. (1-800-222-1222).  The pesticides in mothballs can be absorbed through the skin by children handling them or pets walking on them.  Never put them in pet’s beds or store them with pet food.  Don’t use them in any food area.
Mothballs are a toxic pesticide and should be treated as such.  They are definitely not an organic or safe solution to garden or pest problems.  They are intended to be used in an enclosed area to prevent insects from eating stored clothing. Read the label on the box and follow it.  Even though your grandmother used them all over the house doesn’t mean they are safe. Your grandparents also used DDT without knowing the consequences. And the old wife’s tale of discouraging animals with mothballs doesn’t work most of the time anyway.
 Here’s national pesticide hotline page on toxic effects of mothballs.


"Tell you what I like the best --
'Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strawberries melts
On the vine, -- some afternoon
Like to jes' git out and rest,
And not work at nothin' else!"

-  James Witcomb Riley, Knee Deep in June

Kim Willis

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I write this because I love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my research each week (or things I want to talk about). It keeps me engaged with people and horticulture. It’s a hobby, basically. I hope you enjoy it. If you are on my mailing list and at any time you don’t wish to receive these emails just let me know. If you or anyone you know who would like to receive a notification by email when a new blog is published have them send their email address to me.  KimWillis151@gmail.com



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