madhatter's 2018 garden thread

[skiadikt]

garden halftime report. learning process continues. some hits and misses:

hits: first season harvesting strawberries. 3-4 weeks of a daily pint and a quart+ during the peak. once again even though i cut back on the number of plants, massive zucchini crop. can't keep up with them. green beans also more than i can keep up with. continuing bumper mixed salad crop. garlic did well. brussel sprout plants looking great so far though have had to battle cabbage worms and aphids. broccoli wasn't the prettiest but good head size. couple more plants nearly ready and sprouts starting on the others. asparagus look great. will harvest next year.

misses: snow peas and peas disappointing. maybe that heat wave did them. some harvest early but nowhere as good as last year. tomato plants disappointment. lots of fruit but unfortunately contracted septoria leaf spot. race to get as many to ripen before vines die. basil never took off. last year big bushes, this year small and appear to have some sort of disease where the leaves brown.

[Bubba]

basil never took off. last year big bushes, this year small and appear to have some sort of disease where the leaves brown.

We have two basil plants growing in pots on our deck. Last year, the plants we had did well. This year, same problem as you're having. Parsley, on the other hand, is doing really well.

[madhatter]

basil never took off. last year big bushes, this year small and appear to have some sort of disease where the leaves brown.

We have two basil plants growing in pots on our deck. Last year, the plants we had did well. This year, same problem as you're having. Parsley, on the other hand, is doing really well.

water and humidity...probby got aphids now too....

[tyrolean_skier]

garden halftime report. learning process continues. some hits and misses:

hits: first season harvesting strawberries. 3-4 weeks of a daily pint and a quart+ during the peak. once again even though i cut back on the number of plants, massive zucchini crop. can't keep up with them. green beans also more than i can keep up with. continuing bumper mixed salad crop. garlic did well. brussel sprout plants looking great so far though have had to battle cabbage worms and aphids. broccoli wasn't the prettiest but good head size. couple more plants nearly ready and sprouts starting on the others. asparagus look great. will harvest next year.

misses: snow peas and peas disappointing. maybe that heat wave did them. some harvest early but nowhere as good as last year. tomato plants disappointment. lots of fruit but unfortunately contracted septoria leaf spot. race to get as many to ripen before vines die. basil never took off. last year big bushes, this year small and appear to have some sort of disease where the leaves brown.

I've had the same problem with basil for many years. I think it might be too much watering. This year the crop looks good so far but I've cut it back once and it needs to be recut. Too hot today for me to go out and do that. I also have picked many tomatoes and had to boil some of them to make sauce and have too many cucumbers coming off my few plants and can't eat them fast enough.

I would contact the restaurants in the area (like Highline Lodge) that use local farmers crops for the ones that you have too many of.

[madhatter]

I added a new determinate variety of tomato this year...good call as we are already harvesting them...pretty damn early for VT tomatoes...

[tyrolean_skier]

With the heat we are experiencing, the tomatoes are ripening fast. Here is what I picked today:

tomatoes picked 080618.jpg (111.58 KiB) Viewed 551 times

[Humpty Dumpty]

^^^
You need to clean your counter. It looks grimy.

[f.a.s.t.]

August to do list. Once you finish doing all this in your garden, will you come to mine and help me?

#1 If you have any of the summer-flowering Spiraea like 'Anthony Waterer' with pink flowers, 'Gold Flame' with golden foliage and pink flowers or even 'Little Princess' with its wonderful mound of small pink flowers--and they have finished flowering for you, it's time to wake them up for a second flowering period. The summer-flowering Spiraea for most of you has finished flowering by late July, but if you take your hedge shears and cut them back by about 3 inches, remove all the faded flowers from the plant and feed them with Natural Alternative 5-5-5 organic or Plant Tone, they will come back into bloom in about 3 weeks and have as much as 75% of the flowers they had during the early summer. Prune them now for great late summer color.

#2 Butterfly bush is another plant that will bloom all summer and right up to frost if you keep removing the faded flowers from the plant. The first flowers made will grow up to 10 inches long before they fade, but if you remove them, the plant will make two new flowers to replace the one. Within a couple of weeks a flower bud will form on each side of the bud you removed and they will grow to 6 to 8 inches long. When they fade, remove those two faded flowers and 4 new flower buds will form in their place. They will be smaller 4 to 6 inches but there will be 4 of them to keep your plant colorful and attracting butterflies to your garden. Just keep removing the faded flowers and the plant will keep flowering.

#3 Do you have blue hydrangeas that are getting too tall for the garden? Well, now is the time to cut back any of the non-flowering branches to a height you would prefer. If you cut back the plant now--even by as much as 1/3--it will help to control the height of the plant and encourage additional new growth for next year's flowers. The newer varieties like 'Endless Summer' will also make additional flowers for early fall for you on the new growth they will be making. So get out the hand pruners and reshape your plants--one branch at a time.

#4 Rose of Sharon is one of the best summer-flowering plants we have but if the summer gets hot and humid, it is possible your plants could develop a problem with "spider mites," insects that will prevent some of the flower buds from opening. Early in the morning before it gets too hot out, spray your plant with Bonide All season Oil or Mite-X spray or Spider Mite spray. Do it now and your summer will stay colorful and problem free!

#5 If you're noticing a lot of Japanese beetles flying around your garden and your lawn is in full sun this is the time to think about applying Bayer Dylox down to prevent possible grub problems this fall, Dylox is the only product available to beetles from now to the fall. Japanese beetles will lay 50 to 100 eggs each in a nice sunny lawn and these grubs will eat only the grass roots, not the weeds like crabgrass, clover, dandelions--just the good grass you have worked so hard to grow and keep green all year. Get it down now, and water it in to activate the product so it will kill the grubs.

#6 August is the month to start planting your fall vegetables like peas, beans, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, and kale. As soon as you pull out your spent vegetables replant for a wonderful fall crop that will last into October. Keep fertilizing your peppers, tomatoes, squash and root crops as August heat will help produce wonderful produce and help the crop ripen more quickly.

#7 By mid-August, pinch back every tip of your tomatoes to stop them from growing and encourage the plant to ripen what it has growing on the plant at that time. Any new fruit that forms on the plant after mid-August will not have time to grow and mature in time to ripen (if you really like green tomatoes, you can wait a bit longer). Keep the water on the plants to prevent the tops of your tomatoes from cracking from the hot and dry weather. Also be on the lookout for tomato hornworms, as they are due any day now. Treat plants with the new organic and natural Spinosad insecticide, Captain Jack it works like a charm, and it will keep your plant from being eaten by these big green worms that will grow to 4 inches long in just a few days.

#8 Now is the time to cut down all your Japanese bamboo to the ground along with its energy source, the foliage. The plant will now develop all new foliage and make small clusters of white flowers to signal that all the reserve energy is now being used to replace the foliage and begin the flowering cycle. When you apply a product like Kleen-up, to the foliage and flowers at the end of the month the plant will not be able to block the chemical from getting down to the roots and you should expect to kill as much as 75% of the plant this year. Next year repeat the process and you should be able to destroy it permanently. Two applications a week apart should do the trick.

#8 August is also the best time of the year to spray your Canadian hemlock to protect them against the "woolly adelgid," a small insect found under the new growth of the plant near its tips. This white cottony-looking pest is laying eggs now for next year and the fall applications of Tree and Shrub, from Bayer or Bonide will keep your trees safe for the next year. These pesticides are systemic and are mixed in a watering can and applied to the base of the plant. Use one ounce of product per inch of circumference of the tree at chest high and this pest will die out.

#9 This is also the "best" month to kill poison ivy and poison oak growing on your property. Use those nice sunny days of august, when there's no r*in in the forecast, to apply Kills All or Kleen-up, to wipe out this toxic weed in just a few days. In large established areas, check back in a week or so and add a second application to plants not killed by the first application. Bittersweet is another vine that can take over quickly but the same application will destroy this plant before it climbs to the top of your trees and kills them.

#10 Roses need to be fertilized and treated for insects for the last time this month. Roses should never be fertilized after August. This will help the plant prepare for the arrival of fall weather in September. No food in September will toughen up the plant for the winter ahead of us and keep the plant strong. Use Bayer All-In-One Rose and Flower care products early in the month.

#11 This is also time to apply step 3 of your fertilizer program to help keep the grass strong during the heat of summer. Water it in well to activate the product and raise the height of your lawnmower blade to help relieve stress on the grass and help keep it green. Keep the lawn mower blade sharp so the cut grass has a nice clean and sharp edge to it to prevent lawn disease problems.

#12 August is also the best time to fertilize your fruit trees, and other flowering trees as they are now making flower buds for next year color and fruit. Rhododendrons, azaleas, mountain laurel, along with forsythia, lilac and bridal wreath are also making flower buds, so feed them now and do not prune them, as the flower buds are made on the new growth made this year--do your pruning when the flowers begin to fall from the plant in the spring.

#13With the humidity we have been getting and normally get during August it is time to spray your flowers, vegetable and some shrubs with a good fungicide to prevent and destroy disease problems. Powdery mildew a white dust on the foliage is a big problem during August on all Vine crops like Squash and cucumbers, flowers like Zinnias and Tall phlox, also shrubs like Lilacs. All types of blight on Tomatoes and Roses also can be kept clean if you act now. For Organic disease control use "Bio-Save Organics", Disease Control every 10 days when the humidity is bad or every 2 weeks under normal conditions. A great man-made product is "Fung-onil" from Bonide home and garden and should be applied every 2 weeks also.

14} keep up your spraying for Flees, Ticks and Mosquitoes as the usual thunder storms will help to encourage new broods of insects. Remember all it takes is 1 tablespoon of r*in for mosquitoes to breed in. Flees and ticks are a summer long problem and if you have pets that play in your yard or you work in the gardens, keep spraying. Natural-Alternative has a very effective organic spray that will control all these problem insects in one application that will last for a month, so keep spraying. Man-made products like the Bonide Mosquito Beater will also do a great job for you.

15} Keep feeding your annual, perennial and vegetable garden to the very end of the growing season to encourage new flowers, more vegetables and stronger perennial plants for the up and coming winter months. I use Espoma "Grow" fertilizer and alternate it with "Bloom" fertilizer right up until October. Remember that these two types of fertilizer contain beneficial microbes to keep your plants strong and at the same time "MAKE YOU SOIL BETTER "for next year.

16} August, September and October is when your flowering shrubs and trees are making the flower buds for next year blooms. If your shrubs and trees did not due what you expected, then fertilize them now for a more colorful spring and summer next year. Go organic with beneficial microbes this year and see the difference. Use Espoma Holly Tone on all evergreen plants, and Plant Tone for all deciduous plants.

17} At the end of the month will be the best time of the year to plant a new lawn or seed an existing lawn to help thicken it after a hot dry summer. The secret is "ONE" inch of water per week to help germinate those seeds and more if the weather is hot and dry. Also using a seed starter fertilizer will help a great deal like Espoma Lawn starter fertilizer. If you have moss visible, lime is also required. Check your local garden center for Espoma lightning Lime to help make your soil sweeter and faster than traditional lime products.

18} At the end of August you can divide or transplant many of your perennial such as Bleeding Heart, Daylilies, Hosta, Ground Phlox, Hens and Chickens, Tall and Dwarf Bearded Iris, Peonies and all your perennial that have finish flowering and the foliage has begun to turn yellow or brown. Late flowering Perennial can be divided or transplanted in April of next year. Some of the garden centers will have new varieties of Iris, Daylilies, Peonies and Hosta available bare-root or you go on line for great deals at the end of the year prices on single colors and better deals on collections.

19} When the kids go back to school in the next 3 to 4 weeks bring out the bird feeder and give them a good wash with white vinegar and water. If you want colorful birds to stay around your home during the winter months, late August is the time to welcome them to your home. Feeding the birds is a commitment and once you start, do not stop feeding them during the cold winter or the birds that you have welcomed to your home will die because the food that they rely on has stopped coming. On those cold days of Winter with a lot of snow it is amazing how a bird or two will lift your spirits.

20} Some nurseries have already started to have sales on shrubs and trees and by the end of the month most will. Take advantage of these sales to complete your landscaping plans or to add a tree or shrub to your yard. Look over the plant material carefully if it comes with a root ball wrapped in burlap for possible rot or damage. Container or potted plants are less likely to have root damage but check the plant branches for dead branches. Scratch the ends of the branches looking for green just under the bark. If your dealing with a quality nursery this will not be a problem. Perennial on sale could be a big saving also.

Sit back in your favorite yard chair with a cold drink and enjoy your yard, it's August and the summer is getting short now. Get out and enjoy it!

[daytripper]

I agree with most except #7, maybe up in NH that is how you treat your tomatoes, but on LI topping new growth would be silly as my tomatoes continue to ripen well thru october. Cutting new growth now would have me run out of tomatoes in the first week of september while I can normally have them until the first hard frost which is normally late oct to early nov.

[madhatter]

I agree with most except #7, maybe up in NH that is how you treat your tomatoes, but on LI topping new growth would be silly as my tomatoes continue to ripen well thru october. Cutting new growth now would have me run out of tomatoes in the first week of september while I can normally have them until the first hard frost which is normally late oct to early nov.

yep...

[f.a.s.t.]

Another Paul Parent to do list for September, kind of a nice story too:

My Dad always said that "fall is for cleaning, by preparing the gardens for winter and getting the
garden ready for next spring." Here is what we did in September to prepare for the winter and
next year's garden. The first thing we did was to clean out the tool shed and the garage. A quick
cleaning before you fill them with the garden equipment, with
leftover products like fertilizer,
insect and disease control products and with all the patio furniture.

The rototiller was washed, the oil was changed, and the gas was treated with a preservative to
keep it from going bad during the winter. It was put in the back of the garage to be out of the way,
and the 4 snow shovels were placed in front of it. Just a reminder that they were ready for my 2
brothers and me to help him shovel the driveway; in those days, snow blowers were not
necessary when you had three sons.

Next, it was time to clean the vegetable and flower gardens. All plants that were finished
producing were pulled up and placed into the compost pile. The garden was raked and cleaned,
and the soil was prepared for next year with an application of limestone and several pickup truck
loads of chicken manure from a friend's farm. It was always fun spreading chicken manure on a
nice fall day and watching all the neighbors close the windows. But a quick watering did help to
calm down this wonderful gardening fragrance, OH YEAH...and it still brings back wonderful
memories of working in the garden with my Dad.

All the annual flowers that looked so tired were removed from the garden. The perennial garden
was also cleaned and the plants were cut back to remove the yellowing and dying foliage. My
Dad always believed that if we removed the tired plants and dead foliage that we were preventing
problems for the following year and, yes, he was right. Insects and disease know that cooler
weather means the end of their life cycle, and to continue their future they must lay eggs on that
dying foliage. Diseases make spores for next year also. If you clean the garden this fall, you will
have fewer problems next year. Then we limed these gardens and added chicken manure to
keep those microbes well-fed during the winter.

Next, we cleaned the berry plants and my father removed the old canes of the raspberries that
had produced so well that year. "Remove the old to make room for the new canes that will come
next spring," he said--and he was so right, because if you do not remove the canes that produced
this year, they will only make foliage for you next year, taking energy from the new ones. Clean
the area around the plants, add limestone and, yes, that wonderful chicken manure. I think I still
have scratches on my arms from cleaning those raspberries...but it was all worth the effort when
those fresh berries were ready for picking.

Blueberries were mulched for the winter for extra protection against the cold and we added
aluminum sulfate to help keep the soil around the plant more acidic, as blueberries do much
better in acid soil. Pruning was done in the spring, never in the fall. The strawberries
were
cleaned of weeds around them and a fresh layer of straw was added for winter protection, and a
bit of limestone to keep the soil sweet. Before we placed the mulch and straw around the plants,
Dad always made sure we used the chicken manure around the plants. It was never a problem to
get us kids into the bathtub after helping my father with his fall clean up.

We had several fruit trees in the back of the yard until a hurricane came through one year in the
late Fifties and destroyed them because they were full of fruit, and the tree broke apart very easily
with all the weight on the branches. But when we had when we had those trees, we made sure
that fallen fruit was cleaned weekly every fall to prevent yellow jackets and wasps from stinging
us kids. My mother made many pies and jams with what was left after the five of us kids ate our
share from the trees.

We moved to the climbing roses and tied them up for the winter, then mulched around them for
extra protection. Shrub roses were cleaned, mulched, and sprayed for overwintering insects and
diseases. Remember to never prune roses in the fall, always in the spring when the Red Sox play
baseball for real at Fenway Park in Boston. Maybe that is the problem with the Red Sox now; they
think September is fall training and it does not count!

The lawn was last, because it was still growing and it would need several more cuttings before
November got here. But we did add lots of limestone and I can still remember looking at my shoes
when the job was done because they were really white and I had to wash them and polish them
before going to school on Monday.

We did use a bag lawn fertilizer from the nursery in the fall to help keep it thick until the ground
froze, but in the spring I can still remember spreading chicken manure all over the lawn. My two
brothers and I looked like bank robbers with our red bandanas wrapped across our mouths and
noses to help keep the smell and taste of the chicken manure away. Today it's funny--but back
then it was no joke.

When all the work was done we applied linseed oil to the wooden handles of the tools to keep
them from drying out and keep them strong. The metal parts of the tools were scraped with a wire
brush and treated with some oil used in the car to prevent rusting during the winter.

When the grass was cut for the last time, we cleaned the lawn mower and sprayed oil on the
blades. Yes, I said "blades," because we had a push lawn mower and we kids supplied the
power. And today kids complain about cutting the lawn with a self-propelled mower; yes, life is
tough. When all the work was done everyone got cleaned up and freed of the manure fragrance.

We were all treated to ice cream and fresh apple cider, then given pumpkins, corn stalks, and
mums to plant and decorate the house and the garden we just cleaned.
My mother picked out spring-flowering bulbs to plant for the next weekend and my father bought a
couple extra bamboo rakes so us kids could help him rake those leaves that would soon fall all
over the yard. Raking leaves was always fun because us kids gotta play in those massive piles of
leaves for several weeks until my Dad burned them in the garden.

I still remember the smell of the
leaves as I lay in the large pile and played. But what I miss most is the smell of burning leaves in
the fall, how about you? Get out in the garden this weekend and enjoy the fall season in your
yard. The time you spend in the garden with your children is priceless so start now and have the memories for a lifetime. Enjoy

[daytripper]

Don't add lime to your raspberries, like blueberries they like acidic soil. Same with the strawberries.

[SkiDork]

^^^
You need to clean your counter. It looks grimy.

agreed - it needs to be re-caulked. Or a total replacement. Or something. That's on me...

[Guy in Shorts]

Fresh bucket of chicken fertilizer on the doorstep welcomed us home from vacation. Garlic bed gets some with the rest going onto the raspberry patch.