Right now is the perfect time for gardeners and anyone who enjoys being outdoors to relish all things summer. Gardeners delight in seeing golden yellow masses of Black-eyed Susans while waving wands of purple lavender grab your attention. Western slope fruit has been abundant this summer — tasty fresh cherries, apricots and peaches are within easy reach on grocery shelves and at farmer’s markets. In home gardens, green beans, peppers and zucchini are coming on so fast it’s almost hard to keep up. Some gardeners have already savored their first tomato sandwich of the season.
Easy Summer Chores
• Freshen or replace dead or tired looking plants growing in containers with new plants — many may be on sale at garden centers. Look for grasses and cannas for vertical interest. For filler plants look for blooming annuals like geraniums and dahlias and perennials that will bloom into fall—coreopsis and rudbeckia.
• Don’t forget to care for indoor houseplants. Treat them with an overhead shower to clean off the foliage. Place a gravel tray covered with water under plants to increase humidity and keep them happy while you’re on vacation.
• As some welcome moisture arrives it’s a good time to clean and sharpen mower blades.
• Renew mulch around vegetables to maintain cool soil temperatures and keep down weeds. Chemical-free grass clippings are free and accessible. Harvest vegetables daily as needed.
• Focus watering tomatoes on the surrounding soil at the base of the plant—not the leaves. Remove suspected diseased lower leaves (ones that look spotted, yellowed or turning brown). Wear gloves when pruning and sterilize pruning shears with rubbing alcohol between cuts.
• Protect winter squash and pumpkins from moist soils and rot by placing them on small pieces of wood, cardboard, or soaped and rinsed meat trays from the grocery store.
• Peppers can be harvested when small — three to four inches in length. Red or other colored peppers need more time on the vine to turn, but it is okay to harvest them while green. Wear gloves when harvesting hot peppers. Store harvested peppers up to ten days in the refrigerator in clean, perforated plastic bags.
• Those white and pink flowers growing on arrow-shaped leafy vines are pretending to be cute. Those vines are bindweed in bloom. Get after them while they are easy to identify. Pull the vine often to reduce its energy. Herbicides may work, but they take years of application and great care in applying near desirable plantings. Keep pulling gardeners!
More Herbs Please
• Grow and multiply herbs for indoor growing or outdoor planting.
• Cut the top six to eight inches from the tip of a healthy, soft-stemmed plant—mint, lemon balm, basil and stevia. Remove all lower leaves.
• Woody plants like oregano, sage, thyme and rosemary will root in water too, but use the newest growth, older stems may not root well. If the herb is flowering, remove the flowers first.
• Cut stems in a clean jar and fill to just under the top leaves. Use tap water that has sat out overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate. Filtered and spring water work too.
• Place in indirect light and change water every day or two.
• Keep the plants in water and use new leaves that grow, or after several roots have formed (days to weeks) transplant new cuttings into sterile potting soil and transplant outside when weather cools off later in the summer. Annual herbs that won’t survive the winter include basil, stevia and tender rosemary.
Disease Watch – Powdery Mildew
• Powdery mildew is easy to recognize — leaves or entire plants that look covered or spotted with gray to white powder. It often shows up mid to late summer on lilacs, grapes, phlox, Virginia creeper, roses and squash plants. Young, more succulent growth is more prone to powdery mildew than older leaves.
• Incidence of powdery mildew is more dependent on high humidity than the presence of water on leaves. It can be severe in warm, dry climates.
• The mildew are fungal threads that only grow on the plant surface, not in the plant tissue. The fungus is host specific. It looks awful and most gardeners want to prevent it or make it go away.
• Proven cultural controls include avoiding late summer applications of nitrogen fertilizer which leads to more leaf growth and susceptibility. Avoid overhead watering to reduce high humidity levels and remove and destroy severely affected leaves (do not compost). Reduce plant crowding to improve air circulation and in the future plant powdery mildew resistant plants and seeds.
• Proven chemical controls include applying sulfur, neem oil, and potassium bicarbonate. Always read package instructions for application and never spray on windy days or when bees or other beneficial insects are present. Combining cultural and chemical controls is the most effective approach to preventing and battling powdery mildew.
• Home-made recipes generally call for one tablespoon of baking soda and a half to one teaspoon of oil or liquid soap to one gallon of water. Use caution with home-made solutions and first test a small area of the plant for possible damage or burning before spraying the entire plant. Always spray when beneficial insects are not in the area.
Betty Cahill speaks and writes about gardening in Colorado. Visit her at http://gardenpunchlist.blogspot.com/ for more gardening tips
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