Archive for the ‘Problems in the Garden This Week’ Category
Tuesday, February 19th, 2013
The problem in the garden this week is simple; spring is still a few weeks away! But guess what? You can bring spring indoors early. One of the easiest ways to bring spring indoors during late winter is to force the stems of spring flowering plants into bloom for indoor display. These spring bloomers have gone through their cold weather requirements and should bloom indoors given the right conditions. Three of the easiest to force are forsythia, flowering quince, and willows. And the process is simple. Take cuttings from your spring bloomers, generally 18inches to 3 feet long. Place the cuttings in a large vase or container filled with luke-warm water. Place the vase in a sunny location and then begin misting your cuttings once a day with luke warm water. Also, be sure to check the water in the container, to make sure it’s fresh. If it’s cloudy or smelly, replace it with new water. Using a floral preservative in your water may help keep it clearer. The forsythia will probably bloom the quickest (takes about a week and a half), with the quince taking about 2 weeks or so. And the willow, well it’ll pop out within a few days, and after a couple weeks, guess what? They’ll even begin rooting in your vase!
Now just about any spring flowering plant can be forced indoors – fruit trees, ornamental pears, redbuds, mockorange, honeysuckle, even dogwoods and magnolias. So, if you’re getting tired of waiting for spring, head outside, and bring spring indoors a few weeks early.
Here’s something else you can be doing while waiting for spring. If you’re like me, I love using green onions in cooking or eating fresh. But did you know that these left over bottoms, can produce more green onions for you? First, make sure you have green onions that have white roots at the bottom of the bulb. Go ahead – cut them up and use the top part of the green onions as you normally would, but be sure to leave the bottom inch or so (with roots) and just a tad a green showing. Grab a small pot with good drainage, and fill it with a good soil-less potting mix. Then, plant the bottoms of the onions, about 1-2 inches apart, and deep enough to only leave a bit of the green showing above the soil line. Place your pot in a sunny window, and water about once a week, or whenever the soil feels dry to the touch. In a short period of time, your onions will begin to re-grow, and will be ready for their second harvest. Let the green tops reach 5-6 inches, and then harvest the new shoots individually with a pair of scissors. Leave the onions in the soil, and they will continue to re-grow new green shoots, even after the second and third harvest, and for quite some time. By the way, in between crops, feel free to head outside and harvest onion tips from the wild onions growing in the lawn and landscape beds. Spring, fall, even cooler summers, they’re growing like crazy, they’re very edible, and you know what I say – “99 cents at the grocery, free in your backyard!” (By the way, you can do the same with garlic bulbs and cut the greens on top.)
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Wednesday, January 16th, 2013
Gardening Indoors with Foliage Plants Having foliage plants indoors continues to become more and more popular! They look great, having indoor plants helps us to feel better emotionally, and they do something no other interior furnishings can do. They provide us with fresh air! Research at NASA has shown that having 2 medium sized foliage plants every 100 square feet or so, is enough to remove indoor air pollutants like benzene, formaldehyde, and many others that I can’t pronounce. NASA put together a list of the best indoor air purifiers, and the interesting thing is, many of the top air purifiers are also some of the easiest foliage plants to grow indoors:
-Spathiphyllum or Peace Lily – definitely a favorite easy to grow indoor plant with its shiny green foliage, and wonderful white flowers that keep coming on year round.
-Dieffenbachia, or Dumb Cane – colorful wide leaves, and tolerate a wide range of conditions.
-Dracaenas – probably 40-50 varieties to choose from…narrow foliage, wide foliage, variegated foliage, and all tolerate a wide range of conditions especially lower lighted areas.
-Spider Plants – now tell me, who hasn’t had a hanging basket of spider plants at one time in their life?
-Pothos – vining plants that have been around forever and truly easy to grow.
-Chinese Evergreens – tough, durable, easy to grow, and not bad looking as well!
-Philodendrons – again many selections in this group including the ever popular selom.
-Sanseveria or Mother in Laws tongue – trust me, just about anyone can grow this plant.
-Ficus, including Rubber Trees – probably two of the most popular larger growing indoor plants.
-And NASA’s top indoor air purifier and fairly easy to grow indoor plant – Palms, from Ponytails to Parlor Palms with their exotic textured foliage creating a tropical and relaxed feeling, all the while helping to clean the indoor air.
(Although not on their top list as an air purifier, don’t forget the ZZ Plant as probably one of the easiest indoor plants to grow!)
So there you have it! 10 indoor plants that are great to look at, make us feel better, they clean the air, and are fairly easy to grow.
Winter Indoor Plant Care – It’s winter, and although most houseplants are resting during these winter months, many times the bugs are not! Warmer temperatures indoors can help bug populations explode overnight. So here are a few tips to help keep your indoor plants bug free.
1.) Rinse your plants off on a regular basis. For smaller plants the kitchen sink or utility tub works great. For larger plants, put them in the shower. By rinsing the leaves every 3-4 weeks in luke warm water, you’ll be cleaning off the dust and dislodging any bugs and their eggs from the plant’s leaves. Make sure you rinse tops and bottoms, stems and trunks.
2.) Monitor your plants regularly looking for any insect activity, and react as quickly as possible if they show up.
3.) Insecticidal soaps are safe to use indoors and cover a lot of different insects – but remember, soaps are a contact spray – kills the bug it is sprayed on. So it may take repeated spraying for complete control.
4.) For sucking insects like scale, mites, aphids and whitefly, you can try using a systemic insecticide with Imidacloprid, which helps control insects from within the plant, and some control form insects in the soil, but use that as a backup. Rinsing the plant and insecticidal sprays will be the most immediate and most effective controls.
5.) And for flying pests like whitefly and fungus gnats, one of the best controls is using a sticky stake. These yellow sticky pads are hung within the plant. The adult insects are attracted to the yellow, and stick to the trap. Pretty simple, yet one of the most effective controls for adult whitefly and fungus gnats.
6.) One last note – when watering your houseplants over the winter, a good general rule of thumb is to let the soil dry before watering again. And when you do water, always use luke warm to warm water.
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Wednesday, December 12th, 2012
Problems in the Garden
No problems in the garden, but here is the ‘Don’t forget December List!’!
DON’T FORGET – Keep your poinsettia in bright light, away from drafts (hot or cold), cooler temperatures, even soil moisture, and never leave water in the saucer after watering. Check the water level – daily – in the Christmas tree stand. Don’t ever let it dry out, as the bottom will begin to seal over. If you’re using a live / balled and burlapped tree for Christmas, don’t forget the 2, 7-10, 2, Plant it routine. And keep that root ball slightly moist while indoors. If your amaryllis finishes flowering early, remove the entire flower stalk and let the foliage grow all winter. When those paperwhites finish flowering, pitch them out. They’re only a one shot deal. If you haven’t already, clean those bird feeders. Use 10% bleach – 90% water solution. Clean, rinse, rinse, dry, and refill will top grade bird feed. Cheap feed produces fewer “cheeps”. Spray those exposed leafy evergreens (and needled) with WiltStop to help add winter protection against moisture loss (can’t be freezing to do this). Rake up left over leaves on the lawn, put the roses to bed for the winter, winter mulch as needed, store away those chemicals to prevent freezing, put away hoses and make sure none are still attached to the freeze-proof spigots, clean out those gutters to prevent ice dams, place tree trunk protectors on smaller trees to prevent damages from deer and other critters, reapply critter repellents as needed, make sure the birds have a source of water all winter (almost more important than the feed), last minute watering of evergreens (especially newly planted ones or those against a foundation), apply winter protection sprays of WiltStop on sunny days above 40 degrees, have the mower serviced and those blades sharpened, make sure containers are stored away properly, plant last minute spring flowering bulbs in pots or in the ground, and make sure you have many gardening catalogs headed your way for the winter! (I’m sure there are more things to do, but this is enough to get you thinking!)
Help Fund Granny’s Garden School in Loveland! Donate $20 or more and receive a FREE Garden Claw! Money goes to a great cause and you get a free garden tool! Hurry before they’re all gone! www.grannysgardenschool.org
If you have a young adult at home (9-16 years of age) who would like to start a vegetable garden next spring and give extra veggies to the Foodbank or Homeless Shelters, Katie Stagliano is offering a ‘grant’ to get that garden started. Visit www.katieskrops.com for more information and to apply for the grant!
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Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
Problems in the Garden
The question always comes up this time of the year, as to when and how to put roses to bed for the winter. Well, here you go:
Putting All Roses to bed for the winter – As the gardening season comes to an end it’s time to tuck away those climbing, hybrid tea, floribunda and grandiflora roses for the winter. Why wait so long to do this? 1.) We want the temperatures to be consistently colder so the roses are definitely shutting down for the winter. 2.) We prefer the ground to be frozen, close to freezing or least less than 40 degrees if possible. So, it may be late December before the time is ‘right’ for putting those roses to bed! NOTE: If you are headed out of town for the winter (before Christmas), wait as late as you can before winterizing the roses.
Here are some general steps to follow for putting roses to bed for the winter: 1.) Its okay to cut your hybrid tea, floribunda, and grandiflora roses back a bit if needed (anywhere from 18-30 inches or so in height), only to make them easier to work with or to prevent long branches from whipping in the winter winds. We’ll do the major pruning next spring, usually late winter (roses still dormant) or early April. Climbing roses will not be pruned this fall, unless some of the canes have become excessively long and may be damaged in winter winds. You may also consider tying the canes together to prevent whipping. Again, any needed pruning needed will be done next spring. 2.) Rake out all debris and fallen leaves from around the base of the plant. Feel free to spray the rose canes and surrounding soil surface with a lime sulfur spray, or if too cold, use a dustible fungicide. As added protection for the rose canes (especially the climbers), feel free to spray the canes with an anti-transpirant such as Bonide’s WiltStop to help seal moisture into the canes during the winter. 3.) Put the roses to bed by mound mulching each plant about 12 inches of so, up from the ground, with the center of the rose in the center of the mound. Rose collars are very helpful in making this process a bit easier. Several mulches can be used, including finely ground leaves, compost, pine needles, or one of the many bark mulches. Pinebark (pinefines) is highly recommended. Mounding mulch helps to protect the rose graft and the lower 8-12 inches of the rose canes from possible winter damage. If you have a rose bed containing multiple roses, it may be easier to consider using a fencing material around the bed, and then fill the entire fenced in area with your mulch. [We do not recommend using rose cones except in Zones 4 or lower.] For added protection, climbing roses may be mound mulched, sprayed with Wilt Stop, as well as wrapped with burlap. In some cases, the entire canes can be laid on the ground and mulched over for the winter. 4.) For landscape or shrub roses, Knock Out roses included, follow the above mentioned clean up around each rose (no pruning needed unless there are long whipping branches). With our ‘normal’ winters, they shouldn’t require the mound mulching, but if you’d like to add the winter ‘mound mulching’ protection, they won’t complain (especially if your roses are in a very exposed or harsh winter climate). But again, not necessary. A good soil surface mulching will be just fine, again, after the soil has dropped below 40 degrees. Note: Occasionally, there will times where it is not possible or feasible to wait until the very end of the season to winterize your roses. If this is the case, we simply suggest you wait as long as you can (to let them shut down) before giving your roses their final cleanup and winter mulching.
5.) Over wintering ‘Tree Roses” – Hopefully your tree rose is growing in a container which will make this tip a breeze. Leave the tree rose outside until it has totally gone dormant and the temperatures are consistently cold (mid December or later). Move the potted tree rose into an unheated garage, water, and water about once each month. You can also spray with WiltStop just before taking it into the garage. Next March, move it back outside (still dormant) to begin re-growing as roses normally would. If the tree rose is growing in the ground, you have 2 options for winter care. Either way, spray it with Wilt Stop first. 1.) Take a sharp spade (10-12 inches away from the trunk) and dig about ½ way around the plant, cutting the roots. Gently pry up on the cut root side and lay the rose on to its side (parallel with the ground). Cover the entire plant and root ball with mulch, finely ground leaves / compost, etc. 2.) Leaving the tree rose upright, circle the entire plant with a cage of chicken wire. Drive one stake in the ground to hold the cage upright and in place. Fill the cage with mulch, finely ground leaves / compost, even straw will work. You can even take it one step further and wrap the filled wire column with burlap and secure it with twine. Be sure to uncover your tree rose in the spring as you would your regularly mulched roses.
[There are 3 towns named after Thanksgiving’s main course – Turkey, Texas – Turkey Creek, La – and Turkey, NC. Want some hard facts about turkeys? Its Meleagris gallopavo – gallus meaning cock, pavo meaning chicken-like, and Meleagris being Roman for guinea fowl. The wattle is the loose skin below a turkeys chin and the warts on the waddle are called carnucles. The male is a tom, the female a hen, and the youngsters are poults. By the way, it takes 75-80 pounds of feed to raise a 30 pound turkey.]
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Tuesday, October 30th, 2012
Problems in the Garden
Buggy Joe has gone into winter hibernation, so we would like to address an issue that is very obvious right now, after all the leaves have fallen from the trees. It’s Bush Honeysuckles (Lonicera maackii, L tatarica, L. morrowii /Amur, Tatarian, Morrow’s honeysuckle), and these are upright deciduous shrubs with long arching branches, growing anywhere from 6-20 feet tall, have very shallow root systems, and are the first plants to green up in the spring and one of the last to lose its leaves in the fall. Look around right now – they’re very obvious!
Once introduced in the US as an ornamental, good for wildlife food and erosion control plant, these non natives have taken over roadsides, right of ways, woodland edges, interiors of open woodlands, and even our own landscapes. Bush honeysuckle out competes and shades out desirable native woodland species and form dense thickets totally void of other vegetation. Some species release inhibiting chemicals into the soil which inhibits other plant growth and prevents tree regeneration at stops forest succession. And their fruits, which are abundant and eaten by local birds and other critters and is the main source for the honeysuckles reproduction process, actually lack the high fat content needed by migrating birds and has a huge impact on lowering the birds populations.
Invasive bush honeysuckle is a major issue here in Ohio and surrounding states, and if you have it on your property, you need to do your best to get rid of it and do not let it re-grow. How? Physical removal – digging them out. For larger plants, simply cut them off at ground level, and immediately treat the freshly cut stump with a vegetation killer like Roundup. But do it immediately after the cut. Then watch for any suckers to emerge from the stump and treat with Roundup. And foliar sprays with herbicides such as Roundup have shown good control. With bush honeysuckle keeping their green leaves so late in the fall, mid to late October is an excellent time to spray. If you have these invasive bush honeysuckles on your property, do all of us a favor and get rid of them. Trust me; it’s the right thing to do.
Note: Be aware there is a native bush honeysuckle in Ohio (Diervilla lonicera) that is not invasive, nor are the selected varieties sold in local garden stores. Native Alternatives: nine-bark (Physocarpus opulifolius), dogwoods (Cornus racemosa, C. amomum and C. sericea), northern arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum), winterberry (Ilex verticillata), and chokeberry (Aronia prunifolia, A. melanocarpa).
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Tuesday, October 16th, 2012
Problems in the Garden
This week Buggy Joe Boggs (OSU Extension) is reporting more than usual fall needle drop due to this summer’s drought conditions, many reports of home invaders (boxelder bugs, Asian Lady Beetles, hackberry psyllids, brown marmorated stink bugs, etc) including mice (rw says Bonide’s Mouse Magic really does work as a mouse repellent!), painted hickory borer in deadwood, yellow jackets showing up near trash cans and carnival / festival / fair food and drinks (looking for sweets!), a reminder to clean up debris and weeds from the garden to get off to a cleaner start next year (same with diseased foliage on landscape plants), and a note that haymaker’s mushrooms are making a big show in many lawns right now (contains hallucinogenic compounds) and should be definitely be avoided. Just ask Alice, and Buggy Joe, who for some reason seems to know an awful lot about this mushroom and the potential side affects. Bottom line: leave it alone.
This is BJB’s last report before he pupates and goes into winter hibernation! We would like to thank Joe and all the folks at OSU Extension for the great information they share with us on a weekly basis. And a special thanks to Joe for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to be a part of our e-newsletter. Thank you, Buggy Joe. Have a great winter’s snooze. (I wonder if he counts bugs in his sleep.)
-Catch The Buggy Joe Boggs blog at www.ronwilsononline.com.
www.beetlebusters.info
www.emeraldashborer.info
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Wednesday, September 26th, 2012
Problems in the Garden
This week Buggy Joe Boggs (OSU Extension) is reporting folks finally noticing bagworms on their evergreens (as well as the lack of needles) and at this stage, nothing can be done besides hand pick them off and destroy them, spotted cucumber beetle populations seem to be excessively high right now and the fact that they will feed on more than cucurbits – they feed on over 100 different plants, the sweet sounds of chirping crickets have started to fill the air, boxelder bugs and the goldenraintree bugs being reported in several landscapes and sides of homes, sour bunch rot being reported on grapes in some areas of Ohio, downy mildew continues to be positively diagnosed in plantings of impatiens, rose rosette being diagnosed in several rose plantings, Japanese beetles still being reported here and there in gardens around the area, male dog day cicadas continue to sing late into the summer, vagabond sod webworms flittering around in a few lawns, Maple tar spot showing now on maple leaves, a reminder to get your lawn seeding done soon as the window starts to close towards the end of September and to get back into the lawn mowing routine as lawns recover and begin growing more as we head into the fall, and finally just a reminder that the wonderful golden “weed” or wildflower we see blooming right now, Goldenrod, which by the way is sold in garden stores, is NOT the one who should get the blame for hay fever and allergies – but instead the blame can be thrown at the ragweed! By the way, go hang out where goldenrod is in bloom – if you are an entomologist or just like watching bugs, the goldenrod attracts a plethora of pollinating insects to its flowers – which again are not the reason you are sneezing!
-Catch The Buggy Joe Boggs Report Saturdays at 8:42am on 55KRC The Talk Station. You’ll also find his blog at www.ronwilsononline.com.
www.beetlebusters.info
www.emeraldashborer.info
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Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
Problems in the Garden
This week Buggy Joe Boggs (OSU Extension) is reporting a somewhat new comer (or maybe mistakenly identified) insect called Goldenraintree bugs, which look very similar to boxelder bugs, locust borers feeding on Goldenrod pollen, soldier beetles out and about (look like tannish brown lightning bugs, net-winged beetles (good beetle) out and about, locust leafminer beetles out and about, cucurbit yellow vine disease reported on squash and pumpkin vines, and continued reports pour in from stressed homeowners complaining about all the spider webs and spiders they’re seeing including wolf spiders, which are usually mistaken for recluse spiders. Remember: spiders are the good guys – creepy and ooky, but still the good guys.
-Catch The Buggy Joe Boggs Report Saturdays at 8:42am on 55KRC The Talk Station. You’ll also find his blog at www.ronwilsononline.com.
www.emeraldashborer.info
www.beetlebusters.info
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Wednesday, August 29th, 2012
Problems in the Garden
This week Buggy Joe Boggs (OSU Extension) is reporting the ‘big cats’ showing up (giant silkworm caterpillars, hornworms, hickory horned devils and many other butterfly and moth caterpillars) as they always do (so big they scare the heck out of you!) and to leave them alone (damages are minimal and we want these around), many trees yellowing and bronzing (due to stress, insects, mites, disease, etc) and besides watering if needed, not much you can do at this point as the damages are done for this year, fall webworms and bagworms reports all around, honeylocust trees bronzing, yellowing and dropping leaves (Cankers on trunks, borers, spider mites, stress), and a reminder that September is the time for turf renovations.
-Catch The Buggy Joe Boggs Report Saturdays at 8:42am on 55KRC The Talk Station. You’ll also find his blog at www.ronwilsononline.com.
www.beetlebusters.info
www.emeraldashborer.info
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Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012
Problems in the Garden
This week Buggy Joe Boggs (OSU Extension) is reporting pitch mass borer on blue spruce (also attacks Norway as well as Austrian, Scotch, red and white pines), the genista broom moth (caterpillars) feeding on lupine, Baptisia, and shrubby trees in the Maackia genus (a new bug to Ohio), predatory bugs showing up (these are the good guys but are mistaken for the bad guys) including assassin bugs, wheel bugs, damsel bugs, minute pirate bugs, spined soldier bug, and antlions with their funnel shaped divots in the soil to trap ants (one of BJB’s favorite bugs), galls galore showing up on Oak tree leaves, euonymus and oystershell scale crawlers are out and about, magnolia scale crawlers out and about, root rot showing up in many landscapes, chinch bugs second generation ready to emerge, and unfortunately downy mildew on impatiens now confirmed in Ohio, Late blight reported on tomatoes in Pike Co, Scarlet Oak sawfly lacing oak leaves, boxelder bugs off to an early fall start, willow gall on – yes – willows, mushrooms popping up everywhere after blow thru showers, time to evaluate the lawn for September renovation month, and a reminder that raccoons can carry diseases including roundworm which can be very harmful to humans (humans – generally unknowingly – come in contact with raccoon feces and is transmitted that way) so be cautious!
-Catch The Buggy Joe Boggs Report Saturdays at 8:42am on 55KRC The Talk Station. You’ll also find his blog at www.ronwilsononline.com.
www.beetlebusters.info
www.emeraldashborer.info
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