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Q: We had terrible blight on our tomatoes this year so I ended up throwing out lots of little tomatoes. Does blight affect pole beans as well or any other vegetables?
Heidi Naman

A: Pole beans don’t get blight. But potatoes do. The last two summers have been so warm and dry it’s been easy to harvest good crops of potatoes. But in a normal year with sporadic rain, many potato plants have blight by the beginning of August.

Peppers can get late blight, but usually don’t. Eggplants are also said to be susceptible.

Blight is a fungal infection that blows into gardens on rainy winds or splashes up from infected soil. It thrives on wet foliage.

That’s why the usual advice is to grow tomatoes under cover: in greenhouses, outside under polyethylene tunnels or under south or west wall roof overhangs. Keeping tomato plants dry definitely stops blight and enables you to grow most any tomato you wish, including heritage varieties. But not everyone has cover available.

People with no shelter for tomatoes can get good harvests outside by growing blight-resistant tomatoes. When their roots are in natural soil, tomatoes grow fast and produce massive crops.

The oldest blight-resistant variety is the large-fruited Legend, which is sometimes sold as a transplant in garden centres. Breeding of blight-resistant tomatoes is conventional (not GMO).

This and the newer blight-resistant varieties can be grown from seed. Gardeners who  start their own transplants can harvest big crops of tomatoes by summer’s end. Blight on these varieties starts very late and moves very slowly.

Blight-resistant varieties I grew this year include the cherry tomato Mountain Magic, the paste type RomaVF and the beefsteak type Defiant.

Only recently have these seeds become commercially available and not everyone has been offering them. This year I bought mine online from Veseys. Grown outside, tomatoes are somewhat later to ripen, but quantities are immense and with blight-resistant tomatoes the plants are still producing when blight-stricken tomatoes have given up.

By the end of September all my tomatoes were black with blight on the older stems but still had fresh, green new stems. By mid-October the new stems were still blight-free and so was the remaining green fruit which had to be ripened inside.

Tomatoes are easy to freeze; just wash, dry and drop them into a plastic bag). Once frozen, their skin lifts off easily if they’re held under hot, running water.

amarrison@shaw.ca

© Copyright 2013

Working in the garden is usually considered an exercise for most people. It is just something to do over the weekend to take their minds of other things, while at the same time involving the muscles to do some actual work, instead of lying about for two days. Some people consider this a better exercise than jogging or even doing push-ups, because it involves many more muscles that these workouts.

However, some other people tend to have problems with gardening. For example, some of them will wake up on Monday morning with sore back or achy joints, while others will experience cramps due to their muscles being inactive for a long time. If you think that there is no way to prevent these minor injuries, you are mistaken. You can minimize the negative effects that gardening can have on muscles, neck and back by following a few simple tips. I will lay them down for you.

Getting comfortable is the key

It is very important that you feel as comfortable as possible while working, so get yourself in a position where nothing will bother you. Once you have found such a position, you can keep it by:

• Working in front of you and not trying to stretch or twist your body in some weird ways. Also, keep your work close to yourself.

• Moving your body to new working positions, if that is necessary. You do not have to be in one position or place the whole time.

• Deciding which tools are right for the job. Not every tool is useful, or comfortable, for every gardening activity.

Tool handling

How they handle their tools is what separates a seasoned gardener from an unprepared one. A seasoned gardener will know how to handle his tools and will prepare them accordingly before any gardening activity. Here are some tips how to improve tool handling:

• You should hold the tools loosely in your hand. Gripping tools too tightly may lead to injuries, some of which can be chronic and may not be discovered immediately.

• If possible, obtain a wheelbarrow to help you transport things. It is much better that you leave transporting heavy things to a tool than having to lift things yourself.

• In order to avoid having to try too hard, always keep the tools used for digging and cutting as sharp as possible.

• Having an access platform nearby at all times will help you avoid stretching too high to reach things that are at a height. Also, it will give you a much better position for working, which goes in line with keeping all the work in front of yourself.

Setting and keeping the pace

In order to feel well and to avoid any injuries, you have to find the pace of work that suits your strength and stamina. If you set the pace too hard, you will end up with all the problems that I have listed at the beginning. However, if you set it to be too lenient, then you will not get enough work done and your body will remain neglected. Here’s some advice that might help you:

• Always take a break when you feel tired. Working while you are tired will only increase the chance of you making some mistake.

• If there is a lot of heavy lifting, digging and cutting to be done, do not do it all at once – that will surely tire you immensely. Instead, spread the work over a few days or weeks, whichever suits you best. Just make a plan and stick to it.

• Do not work only one thing for the entire day. Do a little bit of everything or, at least, work a few different jobs. This way, you will avoid suffering repetitive strain injuries, which can, in time, turn into chronic injuries which might cause much trouble for you.

• Finally, whenever you work in the garden, make sure that you are properly protected from the sun. Working under a sunscreen or wearing a hat will help block the sun. Also, drink a lot of fluids. Both hard work and the sun require you to get hydrated often, so do it – always have a full bottle of water with you.

Working in your garden can be a cause for many chronic and ordinary injures, as I have already said. If you follow the tips explained here, you will surely be able to avoid, hopefully, all of these. It is important to do your gardening safely and responsibly so that you could enjoy working in it for a long time.

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October is a busy month in the garden says Jason Reeves, research horticulturist and garden curator at the University of Tennessee Gardens in Jackson.

Reeves tips for October include:

• Now is a good time to plant trees and shrubs since dormant plants will be under less stress. Newly installed deciduous plants require almost no watering during the winter months, but don’t forget a thorough initial watering, which is paramount. Monitor newly planted evergreens such as junipers, hollies and arborvitae for watering needs if rain is sparse. Even in winter, a plant with leaves on it will transpire. Winter wind drying can hurt an evergreen tree that lacks sufficient moisture.

• October is a good time for you “yardeners” to control broadleaf weeds such as white clover and wild garlic. Check with your county’s UT Extension office for specific recommendations.

• To make leaf removal less of a chore, rake them before they accumulate deeply. If you have a fescue lawn or moss garden, it is even more important to keep the leaves off of it. Compost or use them as mulch in your beds. You can also till them into your soil, and by spring they will be composted. Leaves on the lawn can be chopped with the lawnmower and left in place if not too deep.

• Remember that seasonal mums are more valuable as compost than as “keep around plants” after they’ve faded. Don’t be tempted to plant them because even if they establish themselves, they rarely live up to your expectations the following year. Chrysanthemum “Clara Curtis,” “Ryan’s Yellow” and “Sheffield Pink” are good, reliable perennial cultivars that perform well and make good additions to the landscape.

• October is the preferred time to plant ornamental kale, Swiss chard, and pansies. These are lovely additions to the fall and winter landscape, as well as being edible. Look for the winterbor and Russian kales as they are more reliable in cold weather than the kales known commonly as “flowering cabbage.”

• Don’t forget to bring in your tropical plants and houseplants before frost. Many plants don’t like it when the temps drop into the 40s.

Tony Fulmer

Event:
Winterizing the Garden
October 25 and 26
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Chalet Landscape, Nursery and Garden Center
3132 Lake Avenue
Wilmette
www.ChaletNursery.com

Tony’s Tips:

Fall is the best time to control weeds like Creeping Charlie.

Scrape Creeping Charlie leaves with herbicides like Weed Beater Ultra to more effectively treat weeds.

Fall is a great time to transplant peonies. Carefully cut stems to the ground and plant in the hole with the “eyes” of the plant two inches below the soil.

Protect tulip and crocus bulbs with chicken wire or granular forms of repellents.

Bring in houseplants before the first frost and be sure to inspect them first for pests like mites.

Green isn’t necessarily always better for the environment when it involves invasive, non-native plants and the classic American lawn. However, gardeners can enhance their personal havens by focusing on gardening techniques that align with sustainability practices.

Vegetation serves a very important role in environmental processes, acting as storage tanks for carbon sequestration, as nitrogen fixation converters, as storm water capturers and greenhouse gas absorbers. An understanding of habitat, climate and soil type is necessary when choosing plants and designing gardens. Vegetation optimally grows under certain conditions, and when gardeners become in tune with these characteristics, the more their gardens will flourish.

Using native plants will increase natural habitat in the specified area and will provide native fauna with more options to communicate, mate, reproduce and live. Also, native plants are adapted to the region’s climate and will require fewer resources, such as water and fertilizers, to mature.

Eliminating and reducing dependence on synthetic fertilizers and herbicides, such as RoundUp and Miracle-Gro, will improve the environmental health of the garden. While these chemicals contributed to the green revolution in the 1950s, mass production of agriculture and the transition into the popular practice of monoculture farming, the constant application of these chemicals has many repercussions, especially for watershed health. After sprayed, excess chemicals filter through the soil and ultimately make their way into neighboring waterways, altering water chemistry as fertilizers and herbicides contain high levels of nutrients, such as phosphates and nitrates. High levels of nutrients can lead to algal blooms, which can lead to hypoxic or dead zones. Furthermore, sensitive aquatic life can determinately be affected. Thus, gardeners should consider the external costs of fertilizers and herbicides not just for their own garden but also for the specific habitat, communal ecosystem and regional biome connected to their garden. 

For centuries, even before the manufacturing of chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides, farmers and gardeners have been using natural fertilizers, such as manure and composted biomass, to increase productivity and growth for their gardens and farms. Often local animal farms sell excess manure to the public at discounted rates. Also, for a very minimal amount and effort, backyard compost systems can be installed and maintained.

In addition to compost systems, installing rain gardens and cisterns as well as gray water systems can help increase environmental benefits of a garden. Before conducting any projects, check with county rules and regulations to understand the potential permitting process needed for storm water infrastructure. Often referred to as Low Impact Developments (LIDs), gardeners can easily purchase a cistern to capture rainwater and with some effort, plant a rain garden that uses drought- and flood-tolerant native plants. Depending on the region, different rain gardens can be designed to accommodate the climate and average annual rainfall. There are many books, various online sources and local nurseries that can help gardeners achieve a functioning rain garden. Even more ambitious, environmentally conscious gardeners can have a gray water system installed. Essentially, a gray water system captures wastewater from the dishwasher, cooking, laundry and shower and distributes excess for irrigation purposes. While this process decreases water demand, precautions should be taken for potential hazardous chemicals and toxins.

Planting legumes helps facilitate and even expedite the nitrogen cycle. Within the roots of the legumes, Rhizobia bacteria breaks down atmospheric nitrogen (N₂) into usable nitrates, essential for cell growth and development. In addition to sustaining the nitrogen cycle, vegetation also helps absorb greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide.

Observing current garden practices alongside shifting towards more sustainable land management practices provides gardeners with the ability to further reduce their ecological footprint and increase their garden’s benefits for the planet.

Isabel Sepkowitz is a freelance writer. She is an environmentalist who values sustainability, education, and innovation for the emerging green economy. Her work can be found on Examiner.com.

Posted on: 9:53 am, October 14, 2013, by Trisha Bee

Turning the compost in preparation for the winter. Learn how to handle that stuff this fall to turn it into “gardeners’ gold” next summer.

Canna lilies are popular flowers with large leaves and tall flower stalks on the boulevards and in plantings around businesses and the home. Their underground “bulbs” are tender and will not survive to flower another year if not dug up in October and stored some place warm over winter. Find out how to dig and store them so they are ready to plant and enjoy next summer.

Gladiolus also need winter protection to survive from year to year. They are dug at the same time as cannas and the same way but stored differently. See if these are easier or harder to bring in for the winter.

You can head to the Milwaukee County UW-Extension Horticulture page for more gardening information.

Posted: Sunday, October 13, 2013 12:00 am

Robert Llewellyn’s photo tips

“While a painting starts with white and adds all the stuff you like, a photograph starts with everything and you eliminate stuff to get to what you like,” Llewellyn said. He also shared these tips for the best macro images:

Try the “else-ness” exercise, experimenting with how else you can photograph an object using different angles, lighting, etc.

Use a controlled background with close-ups, such as a full white background for outdoor shots.

Envision the whole frame, not just the object being photographed.

Never shoot just one photo.

    Robert Llewellyn Photography seeks distinctive or odd-looking seed pods for potential inclusion in the upcoming book “Seeing Seed Pods.”

To provide a seed pod for consideration, email Robert@Robert

Llewellyn.com.

    Specimens in clear, sealed bags, preferably identified by common or botanical name, also will be accepted from Oct. 14 to 31 in the Lora M. Robins Library at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. Seed pods will not be returned. For more information and the necessary form, visit http://tinyurl.com/LGBGseedpod.

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on

Sunday, October 13, 2013 12:00 am.

You’re looking out your window right now and there’s nary a bloom in sight. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Your garden started out with such promise. Let’s rewind and review a simple plan to avoid repeating this scene next year.

Does this sound familiar? It’s early spring and you’re at the local nursery buying up blooming beauties by the cartload, convinced that this will be the year for that gorgeous garden you’ve been pining for all winter. How can you resist? Back home you plant and fertilize and admire your handiwork as your flowers bloom gloriously in the garden. For about a month, that is, and then it’s over. Your garden devolves into green leaves or worse, brown sticks. What’s a budding gardener to do? It’s simple: Stop the insanity! Do not buy everything you can get your hands on at the first sign of spring.

Step 1: Use a bit of restraint.

First, a quick run-down of what you’ll find at the garden center: Annuals, perennials, shrubs and herbs. Annuals may bloom all summer, as long as you fertilize and remove spent blooms, but do not come back the following year. Petunias, impatiens, and geraniums are typical annuals. Perennials bloom once a year for a short period of time, usually 2-3 weeks, but come back every year. Flowering shrubs bloom once a year. Herbs can also flower but are not grown typically for that purpose.

You can plant annuals every year, but it’s a lot of work and can be costly. Shrubs are nice accents in the garden to anchor the landscape but may not provide enough color to go it alone. Perennials, on the other hand, are the best route to a more economical, trouble-free, yearly repetitive and colorful garden.

Getting a garden to look great all summer using perennials, however, can be a challenge for the new gardener. You need to choose perennials that bloom in succession. This is called, curiously enough, succession gardening. Of course, most of us are not going to spend hours researching which plant blooms when.

So how do you ensure a successively blooming garden with beautiful color from May to November using primarily perennials?

Step 2: Visit the nursery every three weeks.

The stock will change as the growing season changes because the plants that sell are the ones in bloom. If you buy a few plants every three weeks and plant them, you will have a lovely garden in bloom throughout the season, not only in 2014, but year after year.

Step 3: Buy perennials.

Check the tag or ask nursery staff to confirm that your selections are, indeed, perennial. You may want to add an annual or two to your cart, but the bulk of your purchases to plant in the ground should be perennials.

The gardener’s saying, “Annuals in pots, perennials in the ground,” is a good rule to follow for the greatest balance of the time and money you spend on a long-lived, colorful garden.

About the Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury

Founded in 1996, The Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury is a member of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. A 501(c)(3) charity organization, the club maintains four community beautification sites. Club meetings – which are open to the public – are held the second Wednesday of each month and feature presentations by experienced horticulturists. For more information, go to gcfm.org/eveninggcwestroxbury/Home.aspx or www.facebook.com/EveGardenClubOfWestRox.

Judy Bucklen, a global account manager at Evolven Software, is an avid gardener, and a seven-year member of The Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury. She also provides landscape design services.

View full sizePeter and Susan Schneider grow numerous varieties of roses at Freedom Gardens in Portage Co.Ian Adams
Here are tips that home gardeners can use when closing the rose garden for winter from local rose experts Patti Jacko and Peter Schneider. We also interviewed two experts at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, grounds manager Mark Hoover and horticulturalist Deyampert Giles.

Stop fertilizing roses six weeks before the first frost.

Stop deadheading, since it promotes flower production.

Make sure that the graft point on grafted or hybridized roses is completely covered under soil. Otherwise, the thaw-freeze cycle in winter will kill the plant. You can tell if your rose was grafted – a propagation method in which the roots of one variety are attached to stems from another variety – if all of the branches are coming out of a golf-ball-sized root. That graph point must be well protected from winter weather.

Put down mulch to help keep moisture in the soil.

Rose hips – a swelling where the petals used to be – are actually seed pods that can be saved for next year. Collect the hips and place them in a cool, dry place during the winter. Do not refrigerate or freeze them.

Fall is a good time to plant new roses. They will put down new roots during the fall and winter, and be among the first to leaf out in spring. This is also a good time to transplant.

Keep watering up until the first frost if there isn’t much rain.

There’s no need to cover roses with burlap or Styrofoam.

Rake up leaf material that could harbor diseases. If you use any products, check first to be sure it does not contain fertilizer.

Expect your rose garden keep flowering through the first or second frost, depending on soil and air temperatures. “Roses can take a freeze,” Jacko said, but “don’t expect them to look gorgeous.”

This week’s series: Rose Gardens in Fall

WEDNESDAY: Two local rose experts give advice on putting rose gardens to bed.

THURSDAY: The Rose Garden at Cleveland Botanical Garden.