joene's garden » General

Morning Discoveries in the Garden

joenesgarden — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:41:03 +0000

Early mornings are wonderful in the garden. With cup of coffee in hand and birds singing wildly from nearby trees, I stroll through the garden to enjoy the blooms and observe what's going on.

Many iris are in full glory, but I'm not the only one enjoying them. Early morning strolls reveal slugs in their journey back down iris leaves and stalks after they have had a nighttime feast on the foliage and blossoms. To counter a slug invasion I arm myself with with a repurposed peanut butter jar filled partially with soapy water and a plastic spoon. The spoon easily scoops slugs off foliage and bloom so they can be deposited into the soapy water … their final home. I don't get them all but each slug I remove means fewer slug babies enter this world to feast on my plants. When the slug population really explodes, as it does during rainy springs and summers, I go on slug-fari in the evenings, too.

Clematis 'Crystal Fountain' shows off its stunning blooms. Slugs don't seem to care much for my clematis.

Strawberries, though, are a favorite of slugs. So far, the wood chip mulch surrounding my Alpine strawberries has kept the slugs away – they don't like crawling on the rough surface. The first of these tiny, sweet tasty fruits delighted my taste buds this morning.

Yesterday morning, during an extended stroll and weeding session, I heard a rustling in leaves I neglected to clean from under a holly bush. Closer inspection revealed an Eastern box turtle as the cause.

An Eastern box turtle hung out at the opposite end of my fenced in back yard gardens last year. Perhaps I cleaned too many of the leaves from the area the turtle preferred last spring, or maybe it's just a different turtle. I'm just happy to have a turtle call my garden home, even for a short while each spring, and from now on I'll be sure to leave leaf litter under the holly shrubs the turtle/s obviously prefer.

When I went out later to check on him – I think it's a him because of the red eyes – he had settled down among nearby euonymus.

He's still under the holly this morning, barely visible among the leaves and I chose not to disturb him with another photo session.

The Eastern box turtle population has taken a serious hit in Connecticut. Development diminishes their woodland habitats and roads dissect the routes female turtles travel to find preferred egg-laying locations. I'm happy to maintain areas of unraked leaves under the shrubs in my gardens for Eastern box turtles to use. They eat slugs, worms, small snakes, and fungi … there's plenty of each in my gardens. They also eat fruit. So even if resident turtle meanders to the nearby Alpine strawberries, I don't mind sharing if it helps him survive.

Garden thoughtfully …

Categories: Creatures, Edibles, Gardening, General.
Tags: Alpine strawberry, clematis, Eastern box turtle, gardening in Connecticut, iris, slugs.

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Frost Nipped White Lilacs in the Bud

joenesgarden — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:11:15 +0000

It's official. There will be no white lilac blooms in joene's garden this spring. I waited and watched and hoped for the best, but it's clear now that the March weather nipped my white lilacs in the bud. This is my first weather-related gardening casualty for 2012.

You remember March. Early month record warmth caused unusually early leaf-break. Then late month frosts and hard freezes stopped by for a few nights. Apparently my white lilacs just weren't up to the cold. This is what the larger of the two looks like now. The uppermost leaves are browned and curled while lower leaves are completely normal.

This is what it looked like last spring.

Seasoned gardeners know there can be many reasons for lack of lilac bloom.

Young or transplanted lilacs may take six or seven years to produce flowers. My white lilacs are not young; they've bloomed consistently for the last 12 years.
Poor pruning will prevent blooms. I prune lilacs as they should be pruned, immediately after they cease blooming. I cut all spent flowers off at the same time so the shrubs put energy into setting new flower buds for the following spring. I've been following this procedure, with much success, for decades.
Over fertilizing with nitrogen will encourage leaf, rather than flower, growth. I only fertilize with compost and worm castings, and infrequently at that. There was no fertilization around the lilacs in the past year
Insect- or disease-stressed shrubs may not bloom. My shrubs have no known disease or insect stress.

The late March freeze is the only cause I can think of for the lack of bloom in these two white lilacs.

I feared this freeze might kill the white lilac buds so I covered the larger of the two shrubs with a sheet - it's the one I see most often from the house. But this was a gardening oops, it did nothing but turn the uppermost leaves – those in contact with the sheet - brown. The next morning the shrub left uncovered looked better than the covered one. Not being one to let a good comparison go to waste, I figured I would watch for any bloom differences between the two shrubs.

But the blooms never materialized on either shrub. Both show similar freeze damage though the one I covered has more brown-tipped leaves.

Yet … my purple lilacs are blooming as they have for years. They will be fully open within the next few days.

So why didn't frost thwart the purple lilacs? I cannot say for sure, but my years of gardening experience leads me to think the difference is due to breeding. The purple lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is the plain old common lilac so prevalent in the northeast. The purple lilac pictured above came from divisions of a shrub at my previous home, and that common lilac was decades old.

My white lilac (unfortunately, I misplaced the plant tag and cannot recall the exact cultivar) was bred to remain more compact than the, usually taller, common white lilacs. Often, cultivars are not as tolerant of harsh conditions as the original species. In other words, breeding for smaller size somehow bred out some hardiness.

Any plant aficionados out there have any other ideas that might have led to the lack of white lilac blooms?

Any other Connecticut or Northeastern gardener making similar observations?

Please, please share.

Garden thoughtfully … and did you happen to notice the difference from 2011 to 2012 in the bloom dates on the photo labels? In 2011, lilacs in my south-central Connecticut gardens bloomed in mid-May. This year purple lilacs will be in full bloom within the next few days, about 3 weeks earlier than last year.

Read more on lilacs for Connecticut gardens from UConn Plant Database.

Categories: Gardening, General, Seasons.
Tags: gardening in Connecticut, lilac bloom times, no white lilac blooms for 2012.

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We Are Killing Bees

joenesgarden — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:58:09 +0000

Do you know that the grub-killing pesticide you put on your lawn and the flea control you put on your pet likely contains imidacloprid, a pesticide implicated in honeybee-killing Colony Collapse Disorder? And, if you purchase non-organic coffee, citrus, grapes and other fruits, potatoes and other vegetables, rice or use any sugarcane products you are probably buying an imidacloprid-treated crop?

Imidacloprid, by Bayer, is an ingredient in over 400 products in the U.S., according to the National Pesticide Information Center. Bayer reports it is used on sucking and biting insects such as aphids as well as fruit flies, grubs, termites, white flies and many beetles.

Bees are exposed to imidacloprid through the pollen and nectar they collect from treated crops. Honeybees are also exposed to imidacloprid through the high-fructose corn syrup they are fed by beekeepers, notes Alex Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health. Most U.S.-grown corn is treated with imidacloprid so the insecticide is in corn syrup, Lu explains in this Science Daily report.

Lu and colleagues studied the role imidacloprid might play Colony Collapse Disorder. They monitored four different bee yards, each with four hives – three exposed to different levels of imidacloprid plus one no-exposure control. After 23 weeks of observation, 94 percent of the hives exposed to imidacloprid had died. Those exposed to the highest imidacloprid levels died first.

Strikingly, said Lu, it took only low levels of imidacloprid to cause hive collapse -- less than what is typically used in crops or in areas where bees forage.

Related studies, conducted in the United Kingdom and France, also implicated imidacloprid exposure in the decline of honeybee and bumblebee populations. Both suggest that levels of the nerve-effecting neonicotinoid type of pesticide imidacloprid, similar to those reached with common crop applications, impair bees ability to gain weight, their sense of direction, and ability to produce queens.

«Bumblebees pollinate many of our crops and wild flowers … The use of neonicotinoid pesticides on flowering crops clearly poses a threat to their health, and urgently needs to be re-evaluated.»

There are many neonicotinoid pesticides - too many to address in one post – so let's focus on imidacloprid, the active ingredient in Bayer's Merit and Season Long Grub Control products.

Imidacloprid may remain in the soil for more than a year. It easily moves through soil via water, causing a run-off problem. The pesticide will not remain where you put it, it ends up where ever water takes it. It is taken up by blooming plants … exactly where bees head for pollen and nectar. It is toxic to bees, earthworms, fish, and other aquatic life.

Just look at the label for one imidacloprid product, Merit, approved for use on turf grass, landscape ornamentals, fruit and nut trees, and interior plants. The caution statement for humans is scary enough. The Environmental Hazards statement then lists Merit as highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates and highly toxic to bees exposed directly or from residues on blooming plants. It also cautions that Merit – in essence imidacloprid – is not to be used in areas where soil is permeable to water.

Think about this … All lawns and gardens are in soils permeable to water. To me, this little fact negates the use of imidacloprid on any lawn or garden.

Lawn and garden owners must take the initiative to be informed. Question all lawn and garden care sales pitches in television, newspaper and magazine ads, and through direct mail. READ ALL LABELS. Know what is in a product before using it. Most importantly, acknowledge that each action you take in your lawn and garden is important. What you add to your soil affects insects and birds and toads and small mammals and continues to affect all creatures along the food chain - all the way to humans.

This TED talk, http://www.ted.com/talks/dennis_vanengelsdorp_a_plea_for_bees.html provides an entertaining and informative explanation of the importance of bees. It's worth the time to watch. You may begin to look at bees with a bit more respect, and understand that bees do not exist to annoy us … they actually help feed us.

Garden thoughtfully …

Categories: Creatures, Gardening, General, Techniques.
Tags: bees, Colony Collapse Disorder, imidacloprid, Science Daily, Ted Talks.

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Tick-Borne Disease May Surge in 2012

joenesgarden — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:32:22 +0000

Northeasterners may very well see a spike in tick-borne disease during this spring and summer, but not because of the non-winter we've had. The numbers of blood-seeking, disease-infected black-legged nymphal ticks will be due to a series of events that began with the acorn crop of 2010.

You may recall having to rake, and rake, and rake acorns off your lawn in 2010. It was a bumper acorn crop that led to an increased white-footed mouse population in 2011. More food equals more mice. Not only are mice the preferred host for Ixodes scapularis - black-legged ticks - but mice are really good at transmitting Borrelia burgdorferi – Lyme disease – to ticks. Actually, mice are better at infecting tick larva than other tick hosts such as deer, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, fox and opossum. More food equals more mice equals more disease-infected tick larva.

This surge in 2010 was followed by very few acorns in the autumn of 2011. Since acorns are a major forage food of white-footed mice, fewer acorns equals fewer mice. Fewer acorns last autumn also led to particularly heavy deer browsing of ornamental plants, shrubs and trees and extremely persistent squirrel marauding of bird feeders during the autumn of 2011 and non-winter of 2011-2012, but back to mice and ticks.

Ticks need blood meals in each of their three life-cycles. Tick larva, the one-year olds, hatch free of disease but become disease transmitters after feeding on a diseased host. Larva drop off hosts after feeding and grow into nymphs. Tick nymphs, the two-year-olds, feed on hosts, drop off, and grow to adults which feed on hosts to allow them to reproduce what will become tick larva. The larval ticks of 2011 will become the nymphal ticks, which are as small as a poppy seed, of 2012. Nymphs will seek out blood hosts from May through July. With fewer mice available as hosts, nymphs will seek other hosts. To a hungry nymphal tick, people, dogs and cats are just as attractive as any mouse.

I heard Dr. Richard S. Ostfeld, from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, explain this during his presentation at New England Grows in February. Ostfeld's and colleagues' work of more than two decades is also the focus of the article, Lyme Disease Surge Predicted for Northeastern US: Due to Acorns and Mice, Not Mild Winter, in ScienceDaily.

One aspect of Ostfeld's work I found intriguing was his research on host permissiveness – analysis of where hosts travel, what they eat, how many ticks they support, and how well hosts transmit Lyme disease to black-legged ticks. Ostfeld's group caught small hosts, kept them until they were free of ticks, re-inoculated them with larva (remember the larva are born disease-free), then tested the number of ticks that survived and were infected with Lyme disease. Ostfeld reported mice as the most efficient at transmitting Lyme disease to ticks. He said 92% of ticks from mice were infected, as were 55% of ticks on chipmunks, and just 4% of ticks on opossum. He listed percentages of infected ticks from other mammals as well, but mice, chipmunks and opossum were the three that stood out to me.

Ostfeld explained that grooming has a lot to do with the number of ticks that survive on hosts. Apparently opossum are very good at killing ticks while grooming. Mice are not. On the other hand, Ostfeld noted, mice are very good at surviving in the fragmented environments humans have created by building homes and communities in what was formerly forest or meadow.

My experience in south-central Connecticut matches what Ostfeld outlines. Tons of acorns in 2010, tons of mice – many in the house – during the 2010-2011 winter. No acorns in 2011, and few mice in the winter months of 2011-2012. Ostfeld also said to expect increased adult tick activity during mild winters. Adult ticks become active and seek hosts when temperatures are a bit above freezing. During a wooded walk on a warm February 2012 day my camera caught this little beauty crawling on my pants. I found two other adult ticks doing the same. Adult ticks can also transmit disease, but are less likely to do so than nymphs. Needless to say, a tick check followed my hike.

We cannot completely avoid ticks while living in the Northeast, and gardeners, by the very nature of what we do, are at high risk of becoming a tick host. Tick numbers are highest in forest interiors, second highest at the edges of wooded or shrubby areas, and lower in cut lawns. While doing any outside activity it's advisable to wear light colored clothing so you can more easily see and pick off any ticks and the tiny nymphs. While hiking or gardening it's best to wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants tucked into your socks or boots. How many gardeners actually dress this way in the heat of summer? Certainly not me. Therefore it's really important to make a full-body tick check part of your daily routine. Finding and removing ticks from your skin early lessens the likelihood they will transmit disease to you.

Garden thoughtfully … and remember those daily tick checks,

Joene

Categories: Creatures, Gardening, Gardening Education, General.
Tags: Borrelia burgdorferi, Ixodes scapularis, Lyme disease, New England Grows 2012, Richsrd S. Ostfeld, ScienceDaily, Ticks.

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Spur Your Green Thumb at UConn Garden Conference

joenesgarden — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Looking for some gardening impetus or to expand your gardening knowledge? You'll get both at the 2012 Garden Conference at the University of Connecticut on March 16.

I've heard two of the speakers and, without reservation, recommend hearing them at least once.

Kerry Ann Mendez starts the day talking about change as an opportunity to create a more beautiful garden. I heard a different presentation by Kerry Ann at the Connecticut Horticultural Society conference in February. To describe her as lively is an understatement and I suspect her presentation will include fantastic photos of the beauty she has created on her own plot of land.

Doug Tallamy is one of the native plant gurus. He exudes valuable information about native trees and plants and their role in home environments. You will come away with new respect for many of the native shrubs and trees you might take for granted. Read my post on his book, Bringing Nature Home.

The afternoon topics cover growing an edible landscape by Charlie Nardozzi, herbs as ornamentals by Jo Ann Gardner, and old and new annuals by Mitch Rand. You might get ideas like these: chives as a border or interplanted in perennial beds, and planting lettuce among annuals and perennials. The lettuce gives early color, fills in space, and is harvested before the annuals grow to full size.

It's a full day of gardening talk and thoughts of all the beautiful things that come from growing plants, shrubs and trees. Plus, between presentations you can peruse a sizeable collection of gardening-related books – you're sure to find at least one must-have – and obtain information about local gardening and farming groups.

It's a one stop educational experience bound to inspire you to …

Garden thoughtfully,

Joene

Categories: Conferences/Shows, Gardening, Gardening Education, General.
Tags: gardening in Connecticut, UConn Garden Conference.

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