Garden almanac

This Week in the Garden (July 10)

This Week in the Garden (July 10)🌱 There are a lot of little grasshoppers hopping around in the grassy areas right now, and keeping them out of the garden is a real challenge. The best defense? Mow a 6-foot-wide strip around the garden as low as possible. This helps break up their habitat and discourages them from moving in. There are some baits you can use, but be cautious if you have pets nearby. In the garden itself, neem oil is a great option; it’s natural and effective.

Now, as much as grasshoppers can be a pain, I think there’s an even worse pest: the squash vine borer moth. It looks like an orange wasp (but it’s actually a moth) and lays its eggs right at the soil line where the stems meet the ground. Once those eggs hatch, the larvae bore into the plant stems, causing the plant to wilt and die seemingly overnight. Not fun.

To fight back, spray the lower stems with Sevin, Permethrin, or Spinosad. Do this before the moths start laying eggs. Another helpful tip? Rotate your squash and vine crops to a new spot each year to disrupt their cycle. If you catch the wilting early, you might be able to slit the stem carefully and remove the borer, but it’s a bit of a gamble.

Over in the flowerbed, I’m seeing quite a few leopard moths lately. These come from the woolly bear caterpillars you probably spotted last fall. Interesting little life cycle there!

A new intruder we’re starting to see creeping in from Nebraska is the jumping worm. These look like regular earthworms but are darker and have a white band, not the usual tan. When you disturb them, they thrash around wildly—kind of startling! The big concern is that they outcompete earthworms and strip nutrients from the soil really quickly. Not a big problem yet, but definitely something to watch.

On the lawn front, many yards are showing off those white to purple flowers—unfortunately, it’s field bindweed. This tough, noxious weed has roots that can reach 20+ feet and seeds that stay viable for decades. Your best bet is to hit it hard in the fall (September to October) with a 3-way herbicide like Trimec or Weed-B-Gon Max. It will take repeated applications over multiple seasons to get it under control.

And if your vine crops have little fruits turning yellow and shriveling up, don’t panic—it’s often just poor early pollination. That usually clears up as the plant matures and more male blossoms appear to provide plenty of pollen.

Garden almanac, Garden Pests

In the Garden (June 27)

If you’re seeing small grasshoppers in the lawn, keep an eye on your flowerbeds and veggie patch—they like to wander. Lawn insecticide might help in town, but it’s usually less effective out in rural areas. If they’re creeping into the garden, mowing a 10-foot strip around it down to an inch can create a barrier. For control in the garden, Sevin or other insecticides labeled for chewing insects can help—but don’t spray during the heat of the day, especially when bees are out and about. There are grasshopper baits available, but use caution if kids or pets are around.

Noticing light-colored bumps on your tomato stems? No need to worry—those are just root nodules. Tomatoes sometimes grow these little aerial roots when conditions are just right (or a bit too damp). They’re harmless!

With summer heat settling in, it’s a good time to raise your mower height to around 4 inches. Taller grass helps shade the soil and reduces stress on the blades. If your lawn looks ragged after mowing, it might be time to sharpen or replace your mower blades. Also, try to water in the early morning—less is lost to evaporation. Aim for about an inch of water a week, depending on rainfall. Hold off on fertilizing or weed spraying until the weather cools down again.

And if your spinach bolted early this year (as it often does), give Malabar spinach a try! It’s not true spinach, but it tastes similar and thrives in summer heat. It’s a vining plant, so give it something like chicken wire to climb. You can enjoy the leaves raw or cooked!

I have been noticing this attractive orange flower in the pastures. I never knew what it was until I ran across it in a magazine. It is a Globe Mallow. A drought-tolerant plant that spreads by seed and rhizomes.

Real Estate (Farm & Ranch Land)

This Week in the Garden (June 19th)

This week in the garden, there is the coming of powdery mildew, which is a fungus that attacks many plants, including roses, lilacs, vining garden crops, etc. Several types of mildew are host-specific or attack many different plants. It shows up as a “talcum powder-looking” coating on the leaves, which reduces the sunlight penetrating the leaf, increasing the stress of the plant. Two easy ways to reduce this is to prune to increase air circulation and blast with water (it actually does not like water). To prevent infestation of new leaves, spray with an all-purpose garden fungicide.

Cedar apple rust is showing up on apple and pear leaves. Spray early in the spring to prevent this. There is not much you can do now to prevent it. The same goes for the Buckthorn rust.

A lot of tree seedlings are showing up because last year was a mast year, as this year is. Every few years, the trees and shrubs produce a bumper crop of seeds depending on the variety of plants, especially with maples, cedar, and nut trees. How the trees communicate this to each other is a mystery. Some of it depends on environmental conditions.

If you have to prune trees because of storm damage at this time of the year, never paint the wound with anything. This seals in moisture, creating an area for bacteria to multiply. The only exception is in oaks (bur oak) and elms to prevent picnic beetles and elm beetles from spreading disease.

I have had calls about dead areas of the lawn with edges turning white or light brown. If you can rule out a dog or cat, this could be summer patch. It is a fungus attacking the roots of the grass plants, showing up when it is hot and dry. Make sure your mower is set 3 to 4 inches high and water early in the morning, so the grass does not stay wet for a long period of time. Repair the areas in the late summer.

I had a couple of questions on how to reproduce a seedless watermelon. You really cannot do this at home. Breeders take a watermelon with two sets of chromosomes with one with four sets of chromosomes, producing a watermelon with three sets of chromosomes. This is the one you plant to get a seedless watermelon (a sterile hybrid). This is not gene modifying but only cross-breeding.