OK – CONTEST TIME!
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Haven’t run one in some time so it is now time to try.

I need a tag line.

A tag line is the line just above this editorial (that currently reads – "inseert new line here" and“insert tag line”). In the past, this tag line has been “The Lazy Gardener” (I’m not but I like to pretend I am or I am and I like to pretend I’m not – I’ll get it cleared up one of these days.) And most recently “The Garden Coach” -"helping you garden" (I’m lukewarm about this one.

I’ll invite readers to give me suggestions for a catchy tag line that describes what I do in this newsletter and my websites.

It has to be short – no more than 3 to 8 words so it fits on one line.

I’ll take entries right through the month of July. July 31 is the closing date.

Prize: The winner gets free copies of all my ebooks plus a free copy of the next one I’m working on now.

3 runners up will get a copy of the ebook of their choice.

You can enter here

Naturally, the winner has to agree to let me use the tag line – give up all legal considerations (insert a ton of legal small print here!) :-) and be a good person in exchange for entering/winning/prizes etc.

I may not use any entries in which case I’ll simply pick the runners- up and give away some extra ebooks for close calls.

So – whaddyathink?

New Articles for You

All my new articles are listed here. Click on the archives link at the site to see others.

Want to ask a question? Click here to ask a gardening question.www.gardening-tips-perennials.com/askagardeningquestion.html

Your Questions Answered

First time in 7 years that my honeysuckle, bright pink/orange with yellow pink centers, has a bad case of aphids. Yellow leaves, dropping off, buds falling off, flowers just shriveling up and falling off. Have used NEEM OIL and lots of hose spraying. SHould I cut off all of the infected parts of the vine? Some new growth coming and flowers look normal.

A: If the new growth is not stunted or curled, then it is not necessary to cut off the old damaged leaves.

However, having said that, your plant will look very much better if you do trim away the damaged parts. The trimming will also encourage new fresh growth to develop and you’ll be glad you took the time.

This is the same for annuals that have been aphid terrorized (fuschia particularly) If you trim them back to eliminate the curled leaves, the new growth is usually pretty clean and fresh looking and will produce more flowers than the older stuff

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My pond is approx. 600 gals. (7x8x2.5 deep. I filled it in March and stocked it with goldfish and koi in May. The bio filter is working well...all the tests are good and the fish are happy. My problem is with the plants. I have two pots of hardy lillies that sprouted, one iris and two pots of horse tails and they are all browning and on the brink of dying. I'm guessing I need some nutrients, but I don't know what. BTY, the ph has been on the high side (8.4) so I've been trying to lower it. Thank you.

A: Water pH between 6.5 and 9 shouldn’t be a problem for the pond plants. The water pH will change almost daily as the plants and animals do their thing. This is a smallish pond but with a biofilter working, your fish should be fine (assuming its sized for the pond and fish load) You don’t say what the fish load is or where you’ve planted the plants so I have to assume the plants are not suffering from either fish attacks or water fountain movement (too much water movement is not overly good for lilies).

The plants are an interesting problem. Because they’re all turning, I’d be tempted to look at something in the water. Runoff – lawn chemicals (that would be death on wheels to lilies) Killing horsetail is a feat all by itself – this is one tough plant. I’d test for alkalinity and see what that says. You’re looking for a reading of at least 20 – over 50 is better. But again, most of

Do You Want to Grow Lavender?

the problems with water chemistry should bother the fish before they bother the plants. Water movement would be another lily problem but not horsetail.

Another possible problem is how deep you planted the crowns of the plants. If you put the crowns of the plants too deep, you may see this. The iris is the best able to handle a deep planting but if too deep, it may respond this way as well.

The other possible culprit is the soil you planted them in. I’m assuming you’ve potted up your plants in a clay soil base – not some other material like rocks. If rocks, then feeding is definitely a problem and the use of plant tabs (you stick them in the media and they’re widely available) is a necessity. But again, a lack of food shouldn’t kill horsetail. But a soil with some herbicide in it would definitely create this problem. If you have some left, try growing a few tomato plants in it or some basil. If they won’t grow, you have a soil problem.

So – bottom line – it’s an interesting problem and one that I’d be tempted to look at the water alkalinity, possible runoff and soil contamination.

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HI... my dad wanted me to come on the internet to help him find an answer to something and i thought u might be able to help me. We have a lot of plants and flowers in our yard.. and were even planning on getting a tomato plant and such. Well their are rabbits and foxes and different animals that roam the yard and we cant stop them. WIthout using a fence... is their any way we can keep them away from our plants? like by putting something down to make them stop?

So how do we keep critters out of the garden? There’s a lot of stuff out there that is recommended.

*“Instant Fence” is supposed to work on rabbits and deer.
*Hanging bars of soap is often recommended and regularly pilloried.
*Human hair is similarly recommended and disparaged.
*Fox urine in spray bottles is available – mind you, if you have foxes already this might not help. But I note that foxes are after the rabbits and mice so they are good guys. Foxes (of the animal kind) don’t usually eat vegetables.
*Some herbs and herb concoctions are reputed to repel all kinds of animals.
*Ammonia sprayed and left in dishes at the animals path into the garden will deter four legged critters (including cats) but it must be refreshed regularly.
*Spraying XXXXX (insert your own recipe) from ammonia to rotten eggs to soap is recommended by all kinds of gardeners.
*Electric fencing works if installed at the correct heights and maintained. Keeps out mailmen as well but is ugly.
*Row cloth used for frost protection will offer some protection from predators but you’ll have to put it on and take it off every night once the weather heats up.
*Electronic gizmo’s of high- frequency sound and water spraying controlled by electric eyes are used by many gardeners and they claim these work well.

The bottom line on all these spray products is they might work for a short time until the animal becomes accustomed to the smell. If the animal doesn’t sense a problem associated with that smell, then the smell stops working.

The products require regular renewal – rain and dew take away the smell.

They ALL work if there isn’t enough pressure from the animals (too many animals competing for food) on the garden. Once animals are really hungry, their need for food outweighs any unusual smell.

If they learn your garden simply smells funny but tastes good, well, your garden is a weird smelling cafeteria – thanks very much for the dinner.

I know this frustrates gardeners no end. But the bottom line here is that the animals were here first and we’re trying to survive along with them. Use physical methods of control for best results.

Do You Want to Grow Vegetables?

If I had foxes in my garden, I’d celebrate. Foxes will be eating mice and other rodents and watching them play in the moonlight is a rare treat. A mother fox with her cubs (half dog – half cat) is a joy to watch and I remember watching them on the farm with great delight. I’m ashamed to say that I once took a very long shot at a fox (missed him) while he was sunning himself beside our big pond. The sight of him leaping to try to catch the bullet whizzing over his head (must have sounded like a big insect to him) has stayed with me for a very long time. I wouldn’t do it again. Only did it the once (we were losing chickens) and when I trapped the raccoons in the coop, the eating stopped. But foxes would be a great treat for me now. Their jaunty tails as they trot along are a mystery (how can such a small runty, critter have such a magnificent tail?) LOL.

Celebrate the foxes. Plant extra vegetables. Enclose the vegetables in row cloth to prevent some damage or build small enclosures/fences around the veggie patch.

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Can you please advise about my formerly beautiful double begonia. It was doing well in a basket hanging in mostly shade under a deck. However, lately, with more rain and warmer weather, it seems to be dying. I have fed it miracle grow plant food, but nothing has helped. any help will really be appreciated.

A: Man, I wish I had a buck for every basket of these things that folks have killed. The double tuberous begonia seem to have a small window of success – if you can grow them – you can *really* grow them. But for the rest of us – we have to follow these directions.

Keep them out of the sun. Full sunlight will turn the edges of the leaves reddish (a sign of either too much sun or poor feeding) and the leaf edges will crack and turn brownish (another sign of poor watering).

Keep them out of the full shade. This plant is perverse. It likes lots of sunlight but nothing direct. Under decks where they are in the dark is a recipe for failure. Out in the full light is a recipe for failure. You have to find that one spot that is bright but not in direct sunlight.

Grow them warm. They despise cold or even cool temperatures and in particular cool soil temperatures. Lots of folks lose them in the spring because they leave them outdoors during cool nights. Cool temps lead to root rots and this can happen quite quickly or appear to happen quickly as the plant goes from decent looking to dead almost overnight. The tops stay healthy looking while the roots rot off.

Grow them evenly. This plant does not like to be soaking wet one day and dry the next. This leads to root rot. (see above)

Feed them constantly. The plant is shallow rooted, you have to keep it constantly growing and feeding it regularly will do this. Without feeding, the plant will slowly stop producing blooms. Use a fish emulsion at least once a week and watch it grow.

Prune them every few months. Otherwise, they get long, leggy and ugly looking and then the long (and brittle stems) break off. Before they break, they’ll often droop over the basket and pinch the stems. Still ugly so prune back to where a leaf comes from the stem and/or where you see a new shoot coming from the large main stem.

Having said all that. Once your tuberous begonia starts to fade away, there is very little you can do to bring it back over the course of the summer. A soaking of lime sulphur fungicide will knock back most root fungal problems until you can root some cuttings. You can also prune it (root the cuttings) and hope it will recover for the fall and indoor growing (under lights) but summer enjoyment is pretty much whipped if you see problems in July.

In this case, I’d be tempted to get the plant into the proper sunlight conditions, watch the watering, feed very lightly until it starts putting on new growth. And likely ask your local gardening spirits for some assistance wouldn’t be too far out of order.

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hi doug- love your tips-in spring of 04 my appx 50'x6' asparagus bed was fed with a bad load of manure. The weeds were horrible all summer and in the fall I spent days trying to rid the bed of these weeds- first by hand, then with round up. The bed was put to sleep looking pretty good. This spring I did my best trying to keep up with the invaders but to no avail. I am no match for them. I should note that spear production did not seem to decrease. Please tell me you have a solution. The bed is about 25 yrs old and gives me the best asparagus i have ever had. Look forward to your reply.

A: Asparagus is a royal pain for this reason. FYI – any load of manure will contain weed seed. Unless the manure is fully heat composted, it will always have grass seed in it. It’s not “bad” manure – it is simply manure. :-) The darn stuff goes right through the stomach systems of ruminants as was designed by nature to distribute the seeds. You have to admire a seed’s ability to survive.

However, I had a friend who has battled the same problem for years. He has tried landscape fabric – didn’t work. He tried deep mulch – sorta worked but it was a pain to maintain for him. Now, he simply digs up the grass roots and tries to keep ahead of it.

If you sprayed roundup, you likely got rid of the perennial weeds and grasses. Now all you should be left with are the annuals or the first year germinating perennial grasses and weeds that are easily hoed out. Roundup can be used very early in the spring (Having seen the data on Roundup linking it to Parkinson’s disease and polluting ground water I’m no longer recommend using it.) before the asparagus comes up but the later germinating weeds can’t be touched by this spray (and those are likely your ongoing problem).

So get yourself a good hoe, I like the dutch hoes that work on a push-pull system rather than the chopping hoes, and go at it. Do it early in the spring to get the germinating weed seeds and life will be much more pleasant than if you let them all germinate. I note a “circle –hoe” works really well around the individual spears. I have one from using it on the large perennial display gardens I used to have – good tool.

Or, deep mulch – four to six inches of *straw* not hay. (hay has weed seeds for sure while straw is more likely clean) You’ll still have to weed but hand weeding to pick up the strong seeds – the grasses will not likely be a major problem. 300 square feet of bed will take roughly 30-35 bales of straw.

Put the new compost onto the top of the mulch and keep adding mulch and compost every fall to maintain your depth.

Remember that grass seed will stay dormant for a few years and as soon as you let the mulch layer disappear so the light hits the grass seed, it will pop up again.

Asparagus = weeding problems. But fresh asparagus in the spring is worth the hassle (at least it is when you get it from a friend) :-)

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I live in Fredericton, NB and the red Lily beetle is literally destroying my lily's.....I've been told by one garden center that I need to use 2 products (one of which you mentioned) Neem to kill the Larvi and Sevin to kill the adults BUT another garden center says that Endall will effectively kill all and you mentioned a product called diatomaceous earth. Do you recommend using both Neem oil and diatomaceous earth?

A: Let’s see. Endall is a pyrethrum based spray using canola oil as a base. It is largely used as a miticide (kills mites) and it does kill adults as well as many of the eggs. I haven’t been able to find a label to see if it is registered for lily beetle. That doesn’t mean it won’t kill the beetle – it just means I don’t know. The same could be said for Trounce – a soap and pyrethrum based product. The canola oil component in Endall is used with mites to smother the eggs while the pyrethrum gets the adults. I don’t know whether it would smother beetle eggs but you’d have to spray like crazy on the underside of the leaves to experiment (eggs on bottom of leaves – not tops). But not knowing the label, I can’t really recommend it.

Sevin, in the tests I’ve read, doesn’t touch the red lily beetle. There is only one chemical control that touches them and this stuff is so potent that if you spray it, you have to wear a full respirator. I’m not even going to give you the name of it. It is NOT registered for use on these beetles. Imidacloprid is a registered chemical for controlling red lily beetles but I’ve heard it isn’t all that effective; I haven’t seen any research results. I also note that Sevin is a potent killer of earthworms and other soil microorganisms – not to mention that some formula kill bees as well as a very broad range of insects. I’d never recommend Sevin for anything other than leaving on the shelf. Mind you, many garden centers sell it when they can’t think of anything else to sell you – it works on most other pests (and non-pests) so it is an automatic knee-jerk reaction to any pest.

The diatomaceous earth works mechanically to kill off beetles. It works.

Neem is supposed to work although I haven’t personally tried it.

Hand-picking works.

If the lily beetles are eating away your plants, then using two products and handpicking the survivors will work better than a single application of anything. Spray first and then once the plants are dry, apply the dust (wear masks for the dusting for sure)

You’ll have to repeat this procedure at weekly intervals or immediately after rains.

This pest is pretty persistent and a noxious critter. Chemical sprays have been largely unsuccessful at controlling it.

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From My Garden To Yours

Summer is here and the living is easy. It is if you’ve been keeping up with the weeding to date and have taken care of weeds when they were tiny. If you’re letting them grow, you’ll have a harder time pulling the big ones. It is also easy if you’ve mulched your garden to hold in the cool soil temperatures and water levels. As municipalities across the country impose water restrictions, mulch becomes a gardener’s best friend. In my own gardens, I’ve use leaves from last year as a mulch over the entire garden and they’re doing their thing quite nicely now.

I was at a garden this past weekend that used mushroom compost as mulch. The gardener bought it by the truckload and spread it approximately a half inch thick over the vegetable garden. She said the worms got most it by the end of August but by then it had done its duty of smothering out weeds in the vegetable patch and keeping her ground a little cooler. Salt didn’t seem to be a problem in these small quantities (thicker applications would have been a problem) and given that the worms are eating it that quickly, it is turning into high quality fertilizer very fast. I’m still not a fan of using mushroom compost in large quantities as mulch nor does the analysis of it suggest it is good fertilizer. Rather it is excellent marketing on the part of the mushroom factories to get rid of their waste material. But a little bit seems to work for this gardener and as the price is right for her (her husband is a trucker) this would work.

Wood chips are another common mulch and these work quite nicely in gardens. I saw several large beds with the coloured mulch and I have to say that I think this product is quite hideous-looking. (But what do you really think Doug?). I like mulch that disappears into the background, one that serves a function in the garden without being obvious about its existence. For me, the stars of the garden are the flowers and leaves rather than the ground and anything that competes with the flowers for colour is taking away from the visual impact of the plants. The coloured mulches scream across the garden and take away from the visual effect of the plants they are supposed to be helping. I know there’s a lot of this stuff sold right now but I’d rather get my colour from the shrubs and flowers and not the mulch. I can’t even begin to tell you how bright one garden area was with literally tons of the stuff spread around the garden.

I was also asked about using stone on gardens this past week and my take on that is that it is fine if the garden is an alpine garden and meant to be rocky. It is also fine if you’re not planning on every digging in the garden again and like the look of stone. But if you ever plan on planting something in there and digging around in it, stone makes a terrible mulch. You’ll wind up burying some of it as you dig and you’re not going to be happy. And to make things even more interesting, I think weeds like to germinate faster in stone mulches than in bare soil or bark type mulches. Unless you have a real reason to use stone, I’d stay away from it.

One of the things I’ve had trouble with this season under my mulch is slugs and snails. The dampness has made them quite happy and they’ve been eating some of the emerging perennial shoots before they can reach through the mulch. I discovered this by accident this past week when I was about to replace a plant I thought had died over the winter. Instead of dying, it was trying to throw shoots but they were being eaten as fast as it could grow new ones. I pulled the mulch away from the plant and let the immediate area around it (12-inch circle) dry out so the slugs won’t venture there. I have high hopes for new shoots and leaves by the end of the week. I’ve lost perennials in the past and now I’m starting to wonder how many I’ve lost to aggressive slugs under the mulch. So from now on, I’m going to leave a small circle of unmulched ground around each perennial when planting and growing. It never ceases to amazes me what I’ll learn the hard way when it comes to gardening.

I know that some folks ask about what happens when you accidentally dig some mulch into the soil. This happens, particularly in flower beds, when you are digging and planting in close quarters. This material is mostly composed of cellulose so fungi are going to attack it. This is fine and will not be a problem to the normal soil biology other than you’ll be giving a source of food to fungi. They’ll break it down and make it available to other soil microorganisms. If there’s nitrogen in the mulch, then good bacteria will attack it and make that nitrogen available to the plants. If you’re only accidentally burying a little here and there, you won’t see a problem in your garden. I know that some folks tell you that burying mulch will rob the garden of nitrogen and this may be true if you’re burying cellulose products in large numbers but the odd chunk or three of mulch isn’t going to hurt anything.

But mulch on the garden is a good thing for our plants and as long as you stay away from that coloured stuff, you won’t go wrong.