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Gardening Tips: A quiet August morning in the garden

The only sound to be heard is the 'whoosh' of a neighbour's sprinkler
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It's a very quite Saturday morning in my neighbourhood. Not a breath of air is moving and the water in the St. Marys River is calm as glass. The sky is solid grey and the humidity is extremely high! The only sound I heard this morning as I stepped out on the front deck was the whoosh of my neighbour's sprinkler system.

The rain we've had over the last week or two has been a welcome relief for the gardens. It has also cut the time I have spent watering my containers down by half. Unfortunately the continuation of the hot, humid weather has meant that insect and disease problems have not let up.

Powdery mildew is running wild through many local gardens. My neighbour's zucchini plants have been hit hard. I just have a bit of an issue with cucumber and dahlia plants. My saving grace is that the area where I have those planted is out in the open with good air circulation. Plants tucked into beds sheltered by buildings or dense foliage are more prone to disease.

At this time of year, you may choose to spray with a fungicide to slow down the spread of disease or pull out badly affected plants. Remember next season to have a fungicide on hand and spray foliage of prone plants regularly to prevent disease.

You can also try this baking soda solution and spray weekly to prevent powdery mildew: to 1 gallon of water add a tablespoon each of baking soda, horticultural oil or vegetable and insecticidal soap or dishwashing liquid.

This recipe was found on an organic gardening website along with a caution that some plant leaves may be injured by applying the solution. Don't spray foliage on a sunny day, instead on an overcast day or once the sun has left that area of your garden. Do a test spraying on a few leaves to see if injury occurs before spraying the entire plant. Infected leaves should always be removed and discarded before you spray.

You may decide to remove poor plants from gardens and containers. I have a few plants in my containers that aren't worth the effort to treat as insect or disease problems have advanced too far. There are also a few that have gotten a bit straggly and have very few blooms left.

I will pull out the poor plants and replace them with ones that will add colour right through to October. Take a critical look at your containers. You may even have an entire pot that is ready to be emptied and replanted!

Garden centre shelves will soon be stocked with fall mums, ornamental cabbage and kale, fall pansies, sunflowers, ornamental grasses and more! Be sure to consider the late summer and fall blooming perennial asters and Rudbeckia daisies as additions to your pots or gardens too. I love the colours of fall and enjoy added them to my yard!

I had mentioned in an early article about insect problems to keep an eye out for second hatchings of insects this year. I have found Barberry looper once again eating the new growth on my Rose Glow Barberry bushes. I will mix up another batch of Btk and spray the foliage. Once the looper eats the leaves, the bacterial in Btk will infect their gut so they immediately stop eating. They will die within a few days.

Lily beetles are back on my plants plus their larvae is eating too. The plants are a mess! I just wasn't diligent enough on bug patrol when the weather was so hot. I've cut back the worst plants since they are finished blooming and the foliage that's left is really ugly.

I'll continue the battle with lily beetle on my biggest plant. It's not as badly damaged so worth the effort. Next season I have to keep on top of the problem as I'm not going to give up on my lilies! 


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