Denise Norma talk about what we should be doing in our gardens landscapes during this hot, hot month of June…including fertilizing, mowing, and checking for pests. In this online-only extended interview, Denise Norma also talk about what to do to prevent blossom end rot on tomatoes and whether it’s still ok to eat those unsightly tomatoes. Aired June 15, 2013.
Each week, Edina community members turn to Patch’s Local Voices section to share information, insight and opinions about what matters to them. Patch blogs give anyone from gardening enthusiasts to local business owners the power to easily connect with the whole neighborhood.
Here’s a look at what Edina Patch bloggers had to say over the last week.
Do you want to join Local Voices? Email Community Editor Val Engler at val.engler@patch.com, or get started here.
W e have been getting a lot of questions about vegetable gardens lately. If your garden is not doing so well, bring in a sample or perhaps the answers below may help.
Q: My tomatoes look horrible with leaf spots, distorted leaves and some leaves have only the main vein left.
A: The average tomato cannot tolerate Florida summers. The heat keeps the flowers from forming into fruit. Cherry tomatoes may survive the heat, and other cultivars are being developed but the cultivars you grew up north usually will not survive. Frequent rains will also cause fruit that does set to swell and crack, allowing rot to set in and ruin the fruit.
The high temperatures and humidity also cause tomatoes to get leaf diseases that cause spotting, browning and leaf drop. There is little you can do to prevent this without frequent fungicide applications. Leaving space between plants and training the vines to allow good air circulation will help the leaves to dry quickly when wet and discourage leaf diseases.
You can prune tomatoes to thin the number of branches and allow better air circulation but be sure you have an indeterminate cultivar. Indeterminate means it will keep growing taller and flowering/fruiting as long as conditions for growth are right. Determinate means that it will stop growing and flowering after a certain period. “Patio” cultivars are often determinate because they are selected to be small enough to fit easily on a patio.
Distorted leaves are probably caused by leaf miners. The larvae of these insects tunnel through the middle of the leaves, leaving whitish tunnel lines that cause the leaves to curl and be distorted. Because the insect is protected by the leaf, there are no contact insecticides that can be used and a systemic insecticide would not be safe on a food crop. There are beneficial insects that will kill the leaf miners, so it is best to encourage a diversity of insects in the vegetable garden.
If your tomato plant is looking like it only has stems left on it, you have a caterpillar eating the leaves. The tomato hornworm looks so much like a tomato stem that it is hard to find on the plant. When you start to see stems and no leaves you need to carefully check the whole plant and pick off and destroy any caterpillars before they eat all the leaves. An insecticide dust can be used, but it is most effective when the caterpillar is small. Always follow label directions.
Q: My sweet potatoes and beans have holes all through the leaves. How can I stop this?
A: There are many insects that eat holes in leaves. Plants can stand to have bits of the leaves removed and still thrive and produce a good crop. It may look unsightly to you, but the plant is still fine, and using too many pesticides to try and keep everything looking perfect may cause other unforeseen problems with beneficial insects. Unless the leaf canopy is seriously affected (greater than 50 percent), you are probably better off to live and let live.
Q: I bought some beautiful ornamental sweet potatoes. Will I still be able to eat the tubers?
A: The tubers on the ornamental sweet potatoes are edible, but they won’t taste very good. The plants have been selected for their good looks, not their good taste. When the plants die back in the winter, the tubers will remain unless dug out, and regrow in the spring, but may or may not be the same ornamental color.
Q: Clouds of small white moths fly up when I brush the foliage of my eggplants. What are they and are they a problem?
A: It sounds like whitefly. Whiteflies attack many plants. These pests will suck the sap from the plant, causing the plant to be less vigorous, but more importantly they transmit diseases. The adults resemble small whitish moths, and the immature insects look like clear greenish scales on the undersides of the leaves.
My favorite control in the vegetable garden is sticky yellow traps. The insects are attracted to yellow and the sticky coating catches them. You can purchase ready-made traps, or make your own with a yellow plastic picnic plate coated with Tanglefoot (a commercial brand of sticky goo) or sprayed with a thin coating of STP oil treatment. Keep it a thin coating — too much and it will run off.
Hang the traps at canopy level and within the leaf canopy to catch the whitefly as they fly around. You will need to change the traps frequently because they are not effective when covered.
Visit the Discovery Gardens and our plant clinic with your plant problems and questions from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekdays, at the ag center, 1951 Woodlea Road, Tavares.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Thrillers, fillers and spillers.
No, we’re not talking about the latest horror flick — those words actually refer to plants.
Susie Bachman from Bachman’s Floral explains how they will help to make the perfect container garden.
First, your container needs drainage, so make sure a couple holes can let the water flow through. Then, toss in good potting soil.
The thriller goes in the back and is the statement. Filler goes around the edge, and then you want a spiller that cascades over the side of the pot and adds flair.
Posted: Sunday, June 16, 2013 12:00 am
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Choosing a specific design style for your bedroom can transform it into your favorite space in the house. Learn about the most popular design styles to help you pick the one that appeals to you.
Eclectic: Use different colors, patterns and textures to create a cohesive look.
Cottage: A casual, inviting environment makes cottage style a great choice for guest bedrooms. An easy way to add a cottage feel is to repurpose items.
Mediterranean: This style features bold color and texture to create a unique look. A hand-painted bed and whimsical chandelier would represent the region’s culture.
Romantic: Soft hues and delicate fabrics characterize this style. An ornate headboard, silhouette bed pillows and white draperies would bring a feminine touch.
Contemporary: Think sleek furniture, solid colors and chic furnishings.
Asian: Elements might include a warm color palette, nature-inspired furniture and Japanese shoji screens. All work to create a calm, serene feel.
Coastal: Muted colors and light fabrics are staples. Consider a striped ceiling treatment and bamboo ceiling fan to complete an ocean-inspired look.
Modern: Minimal design is the epitome of this style. Minimal furnishings and a neutral color palette enhance the look.
Old World: This style has a luxurious, regal look. Wooden ceiling beams, intricate wall sconces and textured walls are key design elements of the style.
Traditional: A spacious bedroom with traditional furniture creates a timeless look. Include dramatic bedding.
© 2013 Richmond Times Dispatch. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Sunday, June 16, 2013 12:00 am.
Sometimes it can be as simple as offering a customer a bottle of cold water on a hot day.
It’s sometimes the simple things that help run a retail business like keeping the trash picked up, J.D. Boone recently explained outside his business, Dothan Nurseries.
Boone said it’s important to help make the customer’s visit to Dothan Nurseries a memorable experience. As part of J.D. Boone’s retail philosophy, he runs his business with a certain motto of sorts, “Perfect Plants. Perfect Place. Every Day.”
“It’s not just walkways and displays. It’s about making every single customer special. It’s about making it an experience as opposed to a place to just buy stuff,” Boone said. “We have people who come by once a week and just walk. It’s their release, they just want to walk and look at the plants.”
But Boone also said he’s learned a lot from his family, including his father, Bobby, who has been in the nursery business nearly 40 years. Bobby Boone owns and runs Buds N’ Blossoms Nursery and Landscaping, located on U.S. 431 in north Dothan, with his wife Rhoda.
Sacrifice
J.D. Boone said owning Dothan Nurseries has helped him understand the sacrifice it took for his parents to run their own business as he grew up.
“It’s helped me understand it’s one thing to work at a business, but it’s another to own and run a business,” J.D. Boone said. “I understand now what a big sacrifice it is. I’ve got two little boys, and it makes it even more clear.”
But J.D. Boone said that’s not the only thing he’s learned over the years from his father.
“He’s helped me learn not to get all worked up about employee issues,” J.D. Boone said. “He’s been running his own business for 40 years and I’ve been running mine for almost 10 years. It’s nice to have someone to go to for advice not even nursery related, but just business related.”
J.D. Boone said he’s learned how to run a business, including how to be smarter about buying inventory to sell in the business.
“I encourage him to shop,” Bobby Boone said. “If you can buy right, you can sell right.”
But his father said the feeling is mutual.
“I’m 62 years old, and I’ve reached that point where I feel like I’m learning more from him than he’s learning from me,” Bobby Boone said. “He’s just a wealth of new ideas. We do a better job of retailing because of him.”
In the Beginning
Bobby Boone’s wife’s father started the business on U.S. 431 North in 1972. In the early days of the nursery the total annual sales for Buds N’ Blossoms Nursery and Landscaping came to around $60,000.
Boone worked at the Farley Nuclear Plant, but when his wife became pregnant with J.D. he started working at Buds N’ Blossoms. In 1974, Bobby and his wife took over the nursery.
“It wasn’t a big place, it was actually pretty small,” Bobby Boone said. “We hit it about the time people started landscaping more. We’ve just gradually grown it.”
Bobby Boone said he and his wife purchased the land on Montgomery Highway that formerly housed Wayside Gardens and the Bama Drive-In Theater before that. Bobby and Rhoda Boone changed the name to Dothan Nurseries.
A phone call one day left Bobby and his wife “overjoyed” to find out their son planned to move back home to Dothan with intentions to work with them at the family business.
J.D. Boone grew up in Dothan, and moved away to attend college in South Carolina where earned a degree in finance. He came back to Dothan and worked with his father in landscaping for about a year.
“I like plants, but I love retail,” J.D. Boone said.
Bobby Boone said there are many advantages to the family running similar businesses owned by different people and different locations. He said Buds N’ Blossoms generally has an 80 percent focus on landscaping and 20 percent focus on retail plant sales.
“We can exchange information, and you surely don’t mind sending customers to your son,” Bobby Boone said. “I can’t call my competitors and ask them what to do, but it’s nice to have a son I can call on for advice.”
Bobby Boone said running a similar business with his son has also helped them both expand their customer base.
“It works good being separate businesses. We get all the benefit, and none of the junk or bad stuff,” J.D. Boone said. “The bottom line is we’d both make a lot more mistakes were it not for each other.”
Maroon 5 on The Today Show
Check out Adam Levine and Maroon 5 performing live on Friday, June 14, 2013.
The big, green metal-roofed building along Southeast Stark Street still gleams in the sunlight and the big rock fountain in front still bubbles with water.
But there are few plants outside and what’s left inside will be gone by the end of the month as Drake and Lynn Snodgrass close the garden center that has been in their family for several decades.
Drake’s 7 Dees will keep a smaller store purchased five years ago on Southwest Scholls Ferry Road in Raleigh Hills. And its busy landscaping and design business will remain headquartered on 1.5 acres behind the garden center at 16519 S.E. Stark St.
But the couple, prominent in Oregon politics and charitable activities, will lay off 12 employees June 30 and try to find another use for the garden center’s buildings on 2.5 acres.
“It’s bittersweet,” said Lynn Snodgrass. “Drake and I love east Multnomah County … we’ve been here and invested our personal and business lives here.”
Although a series of wet springs and a sour economy hurt all nursery-oriented businesses, Lynn Snodgrass said, the garden center could not overcome the demographic changes in the Rockwood area of west Gresham.
“Garden centers thrive on home ownership in a five-mile radius, and there’s just not enough here anymore to sustain us,” she said. “There’s just a different spending pattern with apartment dwellers.”
When Bob and Meryle Snodgrass opened the center in the early 1960s much of the surrounding area was undeveloped, and their business grew as east Portland and Gresham filled with single-family homes. Drake Snodgrass bought the garden center from his parents in 1974 and expanded into landscaping.
But during the past 15 years, the area has changed dramatically. Apartments, many of them subsidized, abound. Original homeowners aged and moved on, selling or renting their houses. The city of Gresham has declared much of the area “blighted” to qualify for urban renewal programs.
Social programs in the area are generally overwhelmed by demand or underfunded. Gangs prowl the area; two shootings — one fatal, the other involving 30 shots — recently took place at apartments two miles east of the garden center.
“We appreciate what Gresham is doing and the area is revitalizing, but it’s going to be a long time and just not soon enough for us,” Lynn Snodgrass said.
With a regional clientele and 25 employees, Lynn Snodgrass said Drake’s 7 Dees Landscaping is healthy and growing. The question will be figuring out what to do with the 6,000-square foot garden center building they designed and constructed in 2001.
“We’re open to ideas, and we don’t want the property to sit vacant,” she said. “We’d like to keep it in retail because that may be best for the community.”
Lynn Snodgrass, 62, served in the Oregon Legislature from 1994 to 2000, including two sessions as House speaker. She is considering ramping up her outside activities.
Drake Snodgrass, 63, is on the boards of a low-income medical clinic in Rockwood, the Japanese Garden, the Portland-area Salvation Army and was recently given a community service award by a national landscape organization.
“The stress and sadness of closing the store is hard,” Lynn Snodgrass said. “But change can bring new ideas and energy. You have to try to look at change in a positive way.”
–Quinton Smith
To many motorists, Gardens Corner can pass in the blink of an eye. But to one small group of residents, it’s not only rich in history, but the gateway to Beaufort.
Over time and with road construction that ended in 2011, the intersection of U.S. 17 and U.S. 21 has receded into a bland shadow of its former self.
So the Friends of Gardens Corner has launched landscaping and beautification projects to restore lost luster.
“This golden stretch of the highway contains every bit of our history,” says group president Woody Collins. “The Yemassee Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Reconstruction — so much went on in this area.”
Group member Bill Ladson said the Friends have so far adopted six miles of road for cleanup — two miles along each of the three “spokes” radiating from the traffic circle that is now the heart of Gardens Corner.
As more volunteers come forward, that cleanup will stretch farther. Ladson hopes it eventually covers six miles to the Combahee River on U.S. 17 toward Charleston, about four miles to the Whale Branch River along U.S. 21 toward Beaufort, and about eight miles to Point South on U.S. 17 toward Savannah.
“We are the center, the gateway to those three cities,” Collins said. “You can’t avoid that.”
Ladson is seeking helping hands for the cleanup wherever he can find them. Inmates from the Beaufort County Detention Center assisted the June effort. He has spoken with the Parent Teacher Organization at Whale Branch Early College High School about recruiting students.
“Anyone, anywhere is welcome to become a member,” he said. “We all see Gardens Corner. It is our traditional front door.”
At the traffic circle and interchange, the Friends plan a $50,000 landscaping project. The fledgling nonprofit is seeking grants and hopes to start work in a few years.
“Considering what it is going to give Beaufort County, I don’t look at that as a lot of money,” Collins said. “We still have to get it, but I have faith and confidence that we will.”
The landscaping project would put flowers, trees, shrubs and two historic markers where overgrown grass, weeds and small trees have overtaken the former garden spot.
Beaufort County has agreed to pay for the markers, which cost about $2,000 each. They will tell about American Revolutionary War Col. Benjamin Garden, for whom the community is named, and of wars and other historic events in the area, Collins said.
To raise money, the organization is arranging lectures and selling memberships and $10 T-shirts. People also can pay only $5 for the shirt if they give it to a youth who volunteers to help clean up the highways.
Collins says the new Friends group is reviving an old tradition in Gardens Corner. Various garden clubs have added their touches over the years, from rows of palmetto trees planted by the Alexander Garden Club in the late 1930s, to later groups that planted fields of daffodils, Collins said.
“So we’re just keeping in line with the traditional history that there are people who care about Gardens Corner,” he said.
After all, he said, “this is our front door to Beaufort County, and we want it to look like our front door.”
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Jessica Walliser
Freelance Columnist
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Tribune-Review Horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosts ‘The Organic Gardeners’ at 7 a.m. Sundays on KDKA Radio. She is the author of several gardening books, including ‘Grow Organic’ and ‘Good Bug, Bad Bug.’
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By Jessica Walliser
Published: Friday, June 14, 2013, 8:57 p.m.
Updated 14 hours ago
While most gardeners prefer to leave their smart phones and iPads inside when working in the garden, your phone and tablet can, in fact, be a valuable gardening tool. Smart phones and tablets have a plethora of apps (short for applications) tailored to gardening. A quick search will yield many apps related to gardening. Some cost a few dollars and others are free. Here are a few of my favorites.
Garden Buddy: This is a handy little tool available on iTunes does “garden math.â€� It helps estimate things like how many cubic yards of mulch you need, what size pond pump to purchase, how much lawn fertilizer you’ll need, and how many plants should you get to fill a certain space. A similar app for Androids called Landscape and Garden Calculators also measures for bricks, blocks and pavers.
Botany Buddy: A terrific iPad-only app for identifying trees and shrubs, Botany Buddy lists more than 2,000 plant species and hosts nearly 10,000 images. It’s also a perfect way to search for the right plant for a particular site in your own landscape. A collaborative effort between professional gardeners and landscape designers, this app is a personal favorite for its advanced search features and extensive photo library.
FlowerPedia: With more than 1,300 images of flowers from around the world, this app is great for helping you identify flowers by answering some questions (leaf structure, petal number, etc). It also enables you to share the location of flowers you found with others and to access unusual plant sites located by others — both at home and abroad. FlowerPedia for iPhones and iPads has growing information about each plant as well.
Gardening Toolkit: Great for both organizing your garden and learning some new how-to techniques, this iTunes app is probably the most versatile I have found. It allows you to add pictures, track harvest times and sowing dates, search its extensive database of plants for the “perfect� one, look through a garden glossary, track your watering, and follow month-by-month gardening advice for your hardiness zone plus much more — great for vegetable and ornamental gardeners. A similar app for Androids is Essential Garden Guide and Blackberry users will like Burpee Home Garden Coach.
Audubon Insects and Spiders: Hosting images, identifying features and descriptions, this app is all about bugs. With over 500 common insects featured, it’s useful for learning about the critters you come across in your garden. Enter a few identifying features and scroll through the resulting images to discover what’s bugging you. You can even keep a history of all the insects you’ve found. It is available on both Google Play and in iTunes.
Horticulturist Jessica Walliser co-hosts “The Organic Gardeners� at 7 a.m. Sundays on KDKA Radio. She is the author of several gardening books, including “Grow Organic� and “Good Bug, Bad Bug.� Her website is www.jessicawalliser.com.
Send your gardening or landscaping questions to tribliving@tribweb.com or The Good Earth, 503 Martindale St., 3rd Floor, D.L. Clark Building, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.
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