By mid-June, spring is drawing to a close, gardeners are facing the threat of pests and are probably ready to take a break from planting and enjoy the harvest.
Luckily, you have something to harvest: the garlic bulbs you planted last fall will soon, if not yet sprout, send up curlicues of garlic flowers called scapes. Cut these intriguing stalks back to the first leaf node to ensure the plant's energy is channeled to the swelling bulb (the garlic clove) underground. Luckily, scapes are edible; chop them up for a stir-fry or puree them and add them to soups.
Healthy garlic bulbs will sprout flower stalks or garlic stalks that can be cut back to a leaf node (such as the red markings) and finely chopped for a mild flavour in purees, pestos and stir-fries.
Although we have had cloudy and relatively cool days this week, the warm weather will quickly strip the soil of moisture as the days get longer. The easiest way to keep your plants healthy is to water them regularly. Always water the soil, never the leaves. A watering wand has a stop valve near the handle and can reach up to the height of the plant, across a flower bed, or into a hanging basket. It may blow away the soil, dust, and mulch that stains the surface of the leaves, but it mainly focuses the water on the soil and allows it to soak into the surface. Then water again and wait for the water to soak in again. Watering the soil reduces the chance of fungal growth and water evaporation.
When plants are small, it's easier to water the soil rather than the leaves from above, which helps reduce the incidence of fungal diseases and reduces water loss through evaporation.
If you're like me, you'll find new plants or beautiful combinations that you'll want to plant somewhere in your garden. Remember, new plants under trees will need extra water to compete with the roots of established trees. In general, new perennials, shrubs, or trees will need extra care if they're surrounded by established plants.
Flowering plants need to produce large amounts of nutrients to maintain healthy growth. For example, applying a slow-release fertilizer around roses will help them continue to grow and bloom while fighting off pests. Plants will now grow vigorously. Visit climbing roses, hydrangeas, clematis and other climbing plants, wrapping them around a trellis or tying them to a post depending on the plant. Ties should be loose enough to accommodate thickened stems but strong enough to support growth.
The Lazy Berkshire Gardener's favorite edibles to grow tend to be herbs. Herbs don't require a lot of care. Most herbs are weeds (highly adaptable survivors) that have been selected for their ability to enhance the flavor of food. They don't need rich soil or mulch. They usually do best in well-drained soil and warm sunshine.
Another harvesting tip: Harvest snap peas when the pods are flat and sugar snap peas when the pods are plump. My peas have barely climbed the mini trellis, but I still like to remember that snap peas should be flat and snap peas should be plump.
Perennial flowers may also want to produce fruit, but we gardeners generally encourage the growth of carefully selected and planted perennials and prevent them from producing fruit. To allow the plant to focus its energy on root and structural growth, you should remove the dead flowers from perennials. If there are multiple flowers on a stem, cut back to the next bud or budded stem. If there is one bud per stem, cut the stem back to the leafy base and remove the dead flowers.
Colorful poppies usually bloom profusely but only for a short time. If you don't want the plant to propagate, cut the dead stems back to a leaf node at the base of the plant. When dried, the round flower heads will become full of poppy seeds.
My yew hedge has beautiful new yellow-green growth and will need to be pruned back soon to keep it manageable. When pruning hedges or evergreens, leave the bottom wider than the top. This allows light to reach all the branches and promotes healthy green growth from top to bottom. Also, prune back to where the new growth is, or you'll end up with dead areas.
Warmer weather also brings with it pests. You may notice damage such as spotted needles and brown areas on evergreens. A big change from wet to dry conditions can lead to a large infestation of spider mites. Check your rose needles and leaves with a magnifying glass, or try this method using white paper: Place the paper under the branch and tap the branch lightly. If black spots fall onto the paper and start running around, your plant has spider mites. To get rid of spider mites, use a summer-weight horticultural oil (read the instructions).
That said, no pest threat is going to solve everything, as they will only get worse in the coming months. The Lazy Berkshire Gardener encourages the environment to help by attracting beneficial insects and avian predators and maintaining soil moisture. Healthy plants can handle many problems themselves. As a gardener, you should only use pest control products if the infestation is affecting young plants and is severe. If not, let the plants take care of themselves.
Some strategies are very effective, yet simple. Aphids appear on roses, Datura and other fast-growing summer plants, usually on new shoots. The process is interesting: ants “swarm” the aphids and collect the sweet liquid the aphids give off as they suck the plant's juices. Where there are aphids, there are swarms of ants too. You can confuse the ants and their swarms at relatively low cost with a strong current of water. Most aphids, and other pests too, live on the undersides of leaves. That's where you should focus your efforts.
An ant farmer guards a colony of aphids under a dogwood (Cornus racemosa) leaf.
What are those bubbles? The saliva seen on the shoots is not the product of a wayward uncle with a phlegm problem. Saliva bugs create bubbles in the plant's liquids to hide their location while feeding. They are very noticeable but do not seem to do much damage. A common saliva bug is Philaenus spumarius. I wipe this bug off young strawberries and other vegetables but don't bother them otherwise.
On the left, a ground beetle is in a bubble it created, and on the right, a photo of the tiny pest emerging.
Pests of concern: Watch out for deer tick larvae. These tiny ticks are hard to spot, but they carry disease. They can be as small as a pinhead. Use a DEET-based repellent on your clothing and inspect yourself when you come back indoors. And while there is no population of jumping spiders in Berkshire County, the pests have colonies in neighboring counties. Jumping spider larvae have distinctive polka-dot patterns all over their bodies. Stay vigilant and report any you see.
From left to right, the four larval stages (instars) of the grass fly (SLF). Photo taken from an SLF tip sheet from the Massachusetts Invasive Pest Outreach Project, managed by staff at the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources. Image courtesy of Tea Montagna.
Father's Day is Sunday, June 16th. Honor the father figures in your life with food and floral treasures from your garden. Or, give them a moment of respite in appreciation of their contributions to the garden! Maybe a bench or hammock will allow them to enjoy their creations. Happy Father's Day!
I call myself a “lazy Berkshire gardener” because I don't like to put in too much effort in the garden. I want to enjoy it. It's easier to watch my garden and wait for the compost to form, the water to pool, and the daisies to grow. I look for maximum effect with minimum effort. For example, mulching is better than spraying, which is much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that will thrive or at least tolerate the conditions in my garden. Plus, I'm prepared to accept the consequences if I forget something.
