If you’re going to fertilize your trees, do it now, before June 15. That is the date that trees are thought to begin to prepare for winter dormancy. That gradual shutdown is hampered by late fertilizing when we “feed” our lawns in September, and if trees and shrubs don’t go dormant in time, they suffer damage.
Most of us do have trees and shrubs planted in lawns. You can see some trees and shrubs lose leaves later than others, indicating delayed dormancy. Once shrubs and trees are planted in the lawn, there’s not much we can do to prevent delayed dormancy.
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
My Buddleias (butterfly bushes) and Caryopteris (bluebeard) were damaged by winter’s sudden onset last fall. They’re struggling to come back, so I pruned off the dead wood this spring. That looming threat of winterkill is the reason we shouldn’t prune in fall.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
Not all of us in this Valley have the same or similar gardening situations. Some Eagle area residents have had freezing temperatures, while others of us have had our tomatoes in the ground for weeks.
If you’re in one of those “cold pockets,” you should stock up on season-extending aids such as Walls o’ Water, cloches or frost blankets.
Some folks in this Valley have unusually windy conditions that quickly dry out garden soil and sandblast plants. One solution for that is to plant in “waffle gardens,” shallow basins below soil level that protect plants from wind damage. Another way to counteract wind is to erect or plant windbreaks.
A ‘LIGHTBULB’ MOMENT
Area too shady? If the shading trees are in your yard, remove lower limbs until you can get sufficient sunlight to grow what you desire. If your garden is too sunny and hot for some plants, find a way to shade those plants that wilt in hot sun.
If you feel that some plants need more heat than nature gives us, use a stone mulch around them. An aluminum foil mulch might intensify heat too. Adaptability is a gardener’s best resource.
HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?
You know the growth habit of trees: the top and branch ends contain growth hormones that, when awakened by pruning, move toward the trunk (or roots if the top is pruned), stimulating branching at vegetative buds along the way. Basil and other smaller plants behave the same way, forming more low branches when the top is pinched out.
Vining plants too are subject to growth hormones that act the same way. When your winter squash or melon vine sets out to take over the world, let it run for about 5 feet, then prune off the growing tip. Some folks report tip pruning of vines stimulates female blossoming, and that’s a very good thing.
How do you tell the sex of melon or squash blossoms? Male blossoms are simple blossoms on stalks. Female blossoms have a miniature version of the squash or melon they can produce just behind the blossom.
DETERRING THE PESTS
A Master Gardener from another county told me that Neem applied weekly deters leaf miners from spinach and Swiss chard leaves. Ada County leaf miners, however, are not deterred.
I’m removing damaged parts of leaves, rubbing off eggs (white tiny lines, usually on the backs of leaves), and covering with nylon net. I’m hoping that will be an effective barrier to the egg-laying fly, and I’m further hoping there is no leaf miner pupa in the soil under the net to emerge and lay new eggs.
Leaf miners also attack beet leaves and many weeds such as Chenopodiums like lamb’s quarter. When they hatch, they’re tiny white worms (larvae) about 2 mm long. They burrow between the top and bottom cells of a leaf, then eat their way along a path until they get large enough to emerge, drop to the ground, pupate, then later emerge (in the same season) as a fly, to re-start the cycle.
Their path shows up brown on the leaf surface, and you can tear off that part of the leaf and eat the good part.
Margaret Lauterbach: melauter@earthlink.net or write to Gardening, The Idaho Statesman, P.O. Box 40, Boise, ID 83707
