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Japanese
Beetles are on
the Prowl
You
can count on Japanese beetles choosing the prettiest roses in your garden
for their lunch. Killing them on the spot brings some satisfaction, but it
is merely a brief solution. Their friends will fly in from other places,
so stay on top of them with Sevin dust, imadocloprid spray or other
approved products until the season passes.
The
only long-term fix is to decrease next year’s beetle trouble by treating
lawns where the grubs live. Treat lawns that have shown signs of grub
damage in the past with imidacloprid now, before their eggs hatch.
Make
this work its best by getting your neighbors on board, too. Because
Japanese beetles are such strong fliers, you can expect visitors from
miles away, so the more lawns around you that are grub-free, the better.
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Still Time
for Seeded Flowers
You
know those old favorite flowers like cleome that pop up in the garden on
their own? There is still time to buy a few packets of seed and start
them where they can reseed themselves year after year. Just barely
scratch the seed into a flowerbed and keep the soil moist while the
seeds sprout. Right now you can sow seeds of zinnia, cleome, sunflowers,
tickseed, tithonia (Mexican sunflower), heirloom cockscomb, non-hybrid
marigolds and cosmos. They’ll start blooming in late July and August
— a refreshing sight for mid-summer. These are good flowers to cut and
bring inside, too, but leave some in the garden in fall to drop seeds to
start the bed all over next year. If possible, sow on a flat piece of
ground to keep seeds from washing down slope.
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Zinnias
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Photo by Clemson University - USDA Cooperative Extension Slide Series
Hornworm [Manduca sexta (Linnaeus)] Larva(e)
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Look
Out for Hormworms
Be
on the lookout for hormworms on tomato plants. At first these pests
start out so small that you don’t notice them. By the time they’re a
full-grown 3 or 4 inches long, they’ll strip a plant overnight. Even
though hornworms are easy to miss at first, their droppings are not. If
you see barrel-shaped black-green hornworm dung like what is pictured at
right, then drop what you’re doing and check your plants carefully.
Often towards the tips of stems will rest a hornworm, or two or three.
There are rarely more than just a few per plant, so the simplest way to
get rid of them is to pull them off and destroy.
Honrworm dung
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Go
Hosta Shopping
Looking
for good shade perennials that need little care? Try hostas. Now is a
good time to shop around for the ones that suit your fancy because they’ve
grown to full size in gardens and in nursery containers by June. With so
many shades, patterns and sizes available, look carefully before buying.
The ones with lots of white in the leaves really brighten a shady bed
when planted like a ground cover, while a single, big chartreuse or blue
one becomes a punctuation mark in a bed.
Even
in warmer South Alabama, there are plenty of hostas with a subtropical
lineage that will please you. Good ones throughout the state include
Alba marginata, Aureo mar-ginata, Elegans, Francee, Frances Williams and
Patriot. Royal Standard and So Sweet will surprise you with sweet
blooms.
Mix
hostas with masses of astilbe or fern under trees. They make great
companions for daffodil bulbs, too, because the short time that hostas
are dormant coincides with when daffodils come up. As daffodil foliage
dies down, the emerging hosta leaves tend to hide it. Keep this combo in
mind for September when the bulbs arrive.
In
places where slugs are a problem, you’ll need a pet-safe slug bait to
protect leaves because slugs may like them as much as we do.
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Mulch
Helps with Summer
Heat
Your
key vegetables, flowers and shrubs will appreciate a layer of mulch
right now if the ground around them is bare. Mulched tomatoes are less
likely to crack. Mulched shrubs and flowers don’t wilt as easily. A
layer two to three inches thick keeps the soil cool and maintains
moisture. Organic mulch such as clean straw, pine needles, pine bark or
compost is best because it adds organic matter to the soil. If you can’t
mulch everything, mulch your prized plants.
Lois
Trigg Chaplin is author of The Southern Garderner’s Book of Lists
and former Garden Editor of Southern Living Magazine.
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