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…
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…
It’s that time of year when herbicide damage starts to show up—something that’s, unfortunately, pretty predictable. If you’re noticing cupped or distorted leaves, especially on tomatoes or peppers, there’s a good chance it’s from herbicide drift. The good news? If…
This week in the garden, there is a hard lesson to learn when buying transplants: to remove the flowers or any fruit from the plant. This puts energy into the root and leaf growth for a stronger plant down the…
This week in the garden, you may have heard the term “drought cold tolerance” floating around in garden circles lately? It’s basically about how winter damage can be worse when we don’t get enough snow to insulate plants and provide…
Found the first ticks of the year this week in the garden on the dog Magdelin, I mean Her Royal Highness Queen Magdelin II Regent (and yes, she thinks she is). Time to take her in to get her tick-prevention…
Spent last weekend clearing the asparagus bed and spot-spraying the bromegrass growing in it. This is a great time to tackle unwanted grass in rock beds or perennial gardens. Products like Weed Be Gon work well — just be sure…
Ah, the gardener’s life this week in the garden! Let us summarize. It’s like a game of green thumb roulette every year. But, hey, this season had some major wins! Anytime the radishes and lettuce don’t bolt faster than you…
Not much is starting to bloom this time of the year in the garden this week. Two choices in vines are the silver lace vine and sweet autumn clematis. The silver lace vine is a tough vine growing to 15…
This week in the garden when your flowers and vegetables wind down, remove the dead plants to trash bags. This removes the potential overwintering fungus spores and insect eggs for next year. This also helps with aster yellows in the…
This week in the garden, if you have dead spotty areas in the lawn, try pulling the grass up. If it comes up like a carpet, then dig around to see if you have any grubs. They will be large…
Oh, the joy of this week in the garden! This week’s uninvited but fascinating guest: the humble sow bug. You may have noticed them lounging under the mulch or your garden boards. Fun fact: sow bugs are like the distant…
I had to take a long time to mow in the garden this week because I had to pick up all the frogs and toads in the grass and put them in the flowerbeds. It is all good because they…
Tent caterpillars are showing up this week in the garden. The eggs hatch and the little caterpillars spin a group web on the end of a branch. As they grow the tent becomes bigger. They do this for their protection…
If you had a low fruit yield in the garden this week, this was probably due to the high temperatures. Pollen in many varieties becomes sterile when the temperature is above 90 degrees. Keep a list of the varieties that…