July 18, 2022 summer is here

 Hi gardeners

I’m hoping those of you who need rain are getting it and those of you who don’t need it are sending it my way. In my part of Michigan drought is starting to become a problem in many places. Heat, midsummer sun and wind increase soil moisture evaporation. 

 

In my garden the Oriental lilies are beginning to bloom, some are outside my bedroom window and their lovely scent wafts inside at night.  Also blooming are all kinds of daylilies, four o’clocks, nicotiana, and many varieties of hosta, some of which can make the air smell nice too.  The Black Eyed Susans are starting to bloom along side Shasta daisies and Echinacea.  Golden glow is starting to bloom too, which is keeping me on alert for Japanese beetles.  I have only seen a few so far.

 

Annuals are in their glory days, and I am getting ready to give them a booster dose of fertilizer. My tuberous begonias are gorgeous this year. There’s a second flush of bloom on the roses. Water hyacinths are blooming in my little pond and a giant bullfrog has taken up residence there too.

 

In the vegetable garden I have tomatoes finally starting to turn red, baby cukes and a nice sized watermelon. Hopefully the family of racoons who have started coming to the door all hours of the day looking for handouts will not eat my produce before I get to it.

 

I had two very large garter snakes take up residence in my laundry room, on a shelf 4 feet off the floor where I stored some old towels.  I don’t know how they got inside but after several days of chasing them away every time I saw them and removing the towels, they have relocated, and I believe it’s outside.  I don’t harm snakes as they are one of the most beneficial creatures you can have in the garden. (And that’s where they belong.)

 

I have an Indigo Bunting pair nesting along the edge of the old pasture. They like edge habitat and it’s one reason I do mow some of that space still, wildlife love it. We have had several pairs of Carolina wrens nesting around the house and they are driving me nuts scolding me whenever I work in the garden.  I am seeing young hummingbirds, so they are nesting nearby too. All kinds of birds are coming to the feeders right now. Keep yours full in summer and bird watching is easy.

 

Japanese Beetles

Yes, they have emerged.  Some places will have heavy numbers of them, and some won’t. If it was dry in your area last year when they were active, you may have fewer beetles this year. The eggs they lay in the soil and newly hatched larvae often die if they dry out and you’ll have fewer adults the next summer.

 

Japanese beetles have two seasons of doing damage to your landscape.  The larvae are some of those big ugly grubs in your lawn or garden and they can damage plant roots. Then the grubs turn into beetles and the real fun begins. Japanese beetles will feed on dozens of plant species, leaving flowers and foliage a ragged mess if populations are high.  They also eat soft fruit like grapes, raspberries and blueberries.

 

The adult beetles are very hard to control. Treating lawns and crop fields for the grubs in the spring is a better way to control populations. But many people don’t want to do that because other soil dwelling creatures can be harmed too.  Several organic controls exist – such as milky spore disease that kills the grubs, but they take years to be effective in an area.

 

Start controlling Japanese beetles as soon as you see the first ones. As beetles feed, they emit a scent that draws other beetles to the feeding area.  In a week or two your garden may be heavily infested.

 

You can hand pick and drop them in soapy water, squish them or vacuum them up. Neem oil will kill some and cause others to skip eating treated foliage for a short time.  But it’s not terribly effective and continuously applying it to foliage and flowers damages the plants.  And Neem oil harms beneficial insects too.  

 

No other home remedies like dawn dish detergent sprayed on foliage, work. Diatomaceous earth does not work. Don’t waste your time. Even commercial insecticides sprayed on plants doesn’t usually completely control the damage, they are hardy beasts.  Systemic insecticides work a bit better if applied about 2 weeks before the beetles emerge, but the beetles have to eat a bite or two before they are poisoned.

 

Japanese beetle traps work- but in a suburban/ city environment you can’t get the traps far enough away from your garden to be helpful. They actually lure in beetles from a large distance away and they often eat plants before they make it to the trap. Traps should be at least 100 feet from plants you want to protect- and your neighbor’s plants if they garden.

 

Be aware that yellow is highly attractive to the beetles.  You could use trap flowers like golden glow, (Rudbeckia laciniata 'Hortensia), which they love, to lure the beetles away from other plants, with the same problems as traps.  The good news is that the plants usually recover when beetle feeding ceases in late August. 

 

A note- gardeners hate Japanese beetles and it makes them vulnerable to scams that promise to get rid of the beetles.  And the number of useless and sometimes harmful home remedies on social media continues to climb.  Before trying anything contact your County Extension office or look up the product on a .edu or .gov or other science based site.

 

 Garden products I’m loving this year

The products I mention below I purchased myself, I did not get them free for review nor was I paid to review them. It’s just my personal opinion I’m sharing.

 

I’m not real fond of dragging a hose around to water but our water pressure isn’t a good fit for a sprinkler system so it’s water with a hose or watch things die. I have a hose system with one main line and 3 hoses running off that are on a gang valve so I can reach different areas of my garden. Two of my hoses needed replacing this year so I tried some different types of hoses rather than the rubber/plastic types.

 

I hate it when hoses kink.  So, when I was shopping for hoses, I looked for ones that said they didn’t kink.  The first one I bought was a stainless steel hose.  Yes, that’s right, steel.  It looks like a flexible water line used for home plumbing or a hand held shower nozzle. Bionic Steel is the brand name I have.

 

My stainless-steel hose is lightweight, and it doesn’t kink, but it is flexible. I really like it.  You can easily roll it up in a small circle if you want. It cost about the same as a good rubber hose. The only drawback to these hoses is that you can’t run over them with a car or other heavy object because the hose will be crushed, and you won’t be able to easily repair it.

 

I was going to go back and order a second stainless steel hose, but I found a “collapsible” pocket hose when cleaning out my mom’s house and decided to take it home and try it. I tried these hoses when they first came out and didn’t like them, they were cheap and quickly developed leaks. 

 

Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of this pocket hose or what it cost, but it’s obviously much better made than those older versions.  Once again- no kinks and very light weight.  You can’t leave these hoses turned on full of water because they get stretched out from the water expanding in the heat and could burst.  But if you remember to turn off the water and squeeze the nozzle until the hose shrinks up, they do a great job.  It basically compacts down into a small size all on its own that’s easy to store.

 

I’ve been using this pocket hose in the front of the house, leaving it attached to the gang valve which is zip tied to the railing of our ramp.  When the hose is turned off and the nozzle pressed until the water left in it is gone it neatly shrinks up on its own and I can hang it right beside the gang valve without it being in the way.  After 2 months I’m still pleased with it. 

 

These pocket hoses probably wouldn’t work well if you ran over them either and they would puncture fairly easily if you are using them in some situations where you are dragging them over rough surfaces.  And you can’t leave them full of water and expect them to last long.  But if you do need a new lightweight hose for watering plants do consider one of these newer pocket hoses.  I think you’ll like it.

 

Power tools

We changed to a battery powered weed whip a couple years ago and would never go back to heavy, messy gas weed whips.  Ours uses little plastic blades instead of string which are easy to snap on when you need one, rather than string.  It works just as well as a gas model and usually runs as long as we intended to work anyway.

 

This year I added two new battery powered tools to my stable.  One is a handheld grass shears by WorkPro.  I love this little thing.  When I’m weeding I keep it close by and I can make a nice close edge on the flower bed- even sliding it under plants drooping over the edge to trim grass underneath them.  It’s much easier to control around delicate plants than a weed whip.  I use it to trim around my little water feature and other tight places a weed whip might damage.

 

This is with the hedge blade

And this little wonder also has a hedge trimming blade you can put on.  Now it doesn’t handle heavy stems very well, but it whizzes through light weight stems that need shearing to shape and look nice.  This little helper is light enough for someone like me that has arthritic hands to use easily.  It charges up quickly and simply by plugging it in, no battery to remove to charge and it lasts a surprisingly long time on a charge.

 

The other battery powered tool we are liking is our battery powered lawn mower.  Yes – lawn mower. It’s a 19 inch cut push mower that looks much like a gas mower.  You insert the battery in a slot under the hood and push a button on the handle to start it. No pulling on a cord.  It works just as good as a gas mower, but it’s quieter, easy to start, and doesn’t require oil or gas. It doesn’t pollute the air either.

 

It mows for about 30 minutes on a charge.  Some people buy two batteries with these so they can exchange batteries and keep mowing.  We just use it for trimming since we have a riding mower so the charge time on one battery is usually good for us. And it charges fairly quickly.  We chose to get a steel deck mower, I heard the plastic deck ones are prone to breaking.  The cost of these mowers is about the same as a regular gas push mower.  Ours is from Greenworks.

 

The picture from Amazon of our new mower

We also have a battery powered chain saw called the JawSaw that’s excellent for taking down medium sized branches and quickly chopping up downed limbs. It’s a little heavy and still requires chain oil.  My husband decided to purchase a battery powered chainsaw with a 6 inch blade that’s air cooled. It requires neither oil or gas and is lightweight.  It does quick work on saplings and branches up to a few inches in diameter.

 

Battery powered tools are much improved from just a few years ago.  They are stronger and the batteries last longer and charge faster.  You can often get several tools that run on the same battery.  If you need a new power tool, consider a battery operated one. They are great for older adults and those with mobility/arthritis issues.  Greenworks and WorkPro are good brands for battery operated garden tools. Read descriptions and reviews carefully before you buy as quality varies a lot.

 

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”

John Lubbock

 

Have a great summer afternoon

Kim

 

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Contact Kim at kimwillis151@gmail.com