May can be one of the most diverse months for those who garden. While last May was almost entirely damp and cold, some years, it will warm up early and stay that way. There can be years when the month is dry, or it could be full of excessive rain. While the average for the last frost is around May 10, we can also get frost as late as Memorial Day.

Generally speaking, it is safe to plant everything in the garden by the end of the month. At the end of May, we are officially at the “Let’s plant everything” part of gardening season.

Right now, gardeners are questioning if it is safe to plant anything yet. I think that they feel that any cold temperatures will hurt all plants. But trees and shrubs are very tolerant of the cold. You can plant them from late March until early November. Perennials can also be planted in April, and there are vegetable plants that are cold tolerant. These would include lettuce, spinach, peas, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, beets, radish, carrots, onions and potatoes.

I may have forgotten a few, but I deliberately left out tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, eggplant and basil. These are all plants that have their origins in more tropical climates. If you plant these plants before the last average frost date, you run a big risk of losing them to a frost.

It is best to be a bit conservative when it comes to planting your vegetable garden.

Questions are also raised about when to plant annual flowers. Gardeners want to plant the impatiens as soon as possible. But there are so many tender annual flowers that I can’t list them all here. You must realize that most annuals will be killed by a frost. You are better off waiting until later in the month to plant them. Still, there are some annual flowers that will tolerate cold temperatures. Again the list would be too long to be included here. At the store, we try to bring in only the annual flowers that we think it will be safe to plant at any time during May.

The warm weather in March has made many shrubs flower early this season.

As the spring flowering trees and shrubs have finished their blooming time, you should now give the plants some fertilizer. This will help the plants to put out new growth and to help them to set their flower buds for 2013.

Quite a few of you have noticed damage to the new leaves of your trees. The culprit appears to be the caterpillar of the winter moth. This caterpillar can do a lot of damage in a short period of time. An effective control for this stage of the caterpillar is an application of a product called BT. This is a bacterium that kills caterpillars, yet won’t harm other beneficial insects. It is mixed with water and sprayed onto the leaves of the plant. The caterpillar will still consume a bit of the leaf, but very quickly it will stop eating and die within a few days. There are other products you can use, but this is probably the most effective.

Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.

• • •

Tim Lamprey is the owner of Harbor Garden Center on Route 1 in Salisbury. His website is www.Harborgardens.com. Do you have questions for Tim? Send them to ndn@newburyportnews.com, and he will answer them in upcoming columns.

The Cheap Gardener, Part II

Posted by: Mary Jane Smetanka
under
Books and resources

Updated: April 30, 2012 – 10:09 AM

• 2
• comments
• print

• Tweet

• 

  share

  email

  

“);
}
check=false;
}
else
{
jQuery(“#senderName1”).removeClass(“fc-field-error”);
jQuery(“#errorName1”).remove();
check=true;
}
if(!yourEmail.match(“[a-zA-Z0-9!#$%’*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:.[a-zA-Z0-9!#$%’*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+)*@(?:[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z0-9])?.)+[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z0-9])”))
{
jQuery(“#senderMail1”).addClass(“fc-field-error”);
if(jQuery(“#errorMail1”).length

Please enter your valid email address.

“);
}
check=false;
}
else
{
jQuery(“#senderMail1”).removeClass(“fc-field-error”);
jQuery(“#errorMail1”).remove();
check=true;
}
if(!recipientsEmail.match(“[a-zA-Z0-9!#$%’*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:.[a-zA-Z0-9!#$%’*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+)*@(?:[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z0-9])?.)+[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]*[a-zA-Z0-9])”))
{
jQuery(“#recipientsEmail1”).addClass(“fc-field-error”);
if(jQuery(“#errorRMail1”).length

Please enter recipient valid email address.

For gardeners, yes, there’s the Internet. But when you don’t know what you don’t know — and that’s especially true for beginners in any topic — it helps to have an author guide you along the learning curve.

Here are four gardening books that have plenty to offer beginners in their respective topics, but might also be useful for more experienced gardeners as well.

“Gardening Made Simple: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Gardening” (Wiley/Better Homes and Gardens, $24.99): This sizable primer (more than 350 pages) should be valued by everyone who wants their thumb to get a little greener. The book is a series of quick hits on any of the myriad topics — sodding a new lawn, growing clematis, pruning topiaries, to name just three — that might puzzle a beginner. But it also contains a lot of clever tips and interesting information for garden-grizzled veterans who think they know it all. (I’m somewhere in between, and will be making a seed ball with the clay soil in my yard, a Native American technique for planting especially small seeds.) Scads of color photographs clarify and expound upon the written text.

“Beginner’s Illustrated Guide to Gardening: Techniques to Help You Get Started” (Cool Springs Press, $21.99): Author Katie Elzer-Peters, a horticulturist who has worked in botanic gardens across the U.S., takes an almost remedial approach, which is as valuable as it is unusual. Many beginner books make assumptions; this one doesn’t take anything for granted. For newbies who are a little frightened, Elzer-Peters will hold your hand while showing you the ropes. How basic is it? We love her thorough diagrams on how to read both a fertilizer label and plant label, and there’s a list that defines garden-center “lingo” for the uninitiated (examples include “Annuals: Plants that grow for one year or one season” and “$5 per six-pack: Price per cell-pack with six plants in it.”)

“The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables: The 100 Easiest-to-Grow, Tastiest Vegetables for Your Garden” (Timber Press, $19.95): Author Marie Iannotti, who used to own an heirloom seedling nursery, demystifies heirlooms (criteria are vague, she notes, but they include being open-pollinated and more than 50 years old). More important, she rightly does not place the entire category on a pedestal. The book instead focuses on her tried-and-true favorites, including a Texas pole bean called “Kentucky Wonder,” “Cherokee Purple” tomato (she far prefers it to pop star Brandywine) and “Red Meat” globe radish (juicy and slightly sweet). Not surprising, this is a great book for anybody who grows any sort of vegetable. Iannotti waxes poetic about these plants — and the gorgeous photos throughout the book back her up.

“Herbs: The Complete Gardener’s Guide” (Firefly, $24.95): OK, there are not many gardeners who haven’t grown herbs — they’re the common ground between flower and vegetable gardeners, as well as a rewarding way for rookies to get started. Surely there are some to add to your repertoire. You’ll find what you need, and much more (including recipes), in this beautiful book. In addition to exploring the uses and glories of dozens of herbs, Patrick Lima, an herbalist and author who gardens in Ontario, expounds on their uses — be it in your yard or your cup of tea. The book is back in print after many years out of it, and we wonder at the lapse: Lima’s writing sparkles with wit, elegance and wheelbarrows full of practical information. One chapter is titled: “On Thyme: This herb, too, is of the essence.” See what I mean?

renna@tribune.com

Butterfly gardening has become one of the most popular gardening pastimes today. And it’s no wonder. After all, what could be more enjoyable than sitting peacefully in the middle of a butterfly garden on a sunny day?

There are many ways to enjoy a butterfly garden, but starting one in your own backyard is probably one of the best — and easiest.

According to Suzanne Cook, head gardener for Pekin Park District since 2004, starting a butterfly garden at home is as easy as picking a spot and planting some butterfly-attracting plants.

“A butterfly garden is not hard to maintain,” Cook insists. “It could be a formal garden or a wildflower garden. Butterflies like a variety of plants. They like herbs, especially mint — but mint is an invasive plant. Some of the best plants for home gardens are zinnia, butterfly bush, Victoria blue solisia, and tropical milkweed. But there are many others.”

Cook has a lot of helpful tips for home gardeners who wish to maintain a private butterfly oasis. First, she suggests trimming the butterfly bush in March for new growth every spring.

“A bird bath will bring more activity to your garden. Butterflies also need water,” Cook said. “And if you put a rock in it, you might see a butterfly sunning on it.”

Butterfly gardens do best in a sunny location, sheltered from the wind. Cook said butterflies enjoy two types of plants: nectar plants that provide food for the adults, and host plants that provide food for their offspring.

A short list of host plants include everlasting, daisy, burdock, hackberry, Queen Anne’s lace, turtlehead, false foxglove, plantain, parsley, dill, fennel, clover, elm, snapdragon, hollyhock, peas, mustard, sunflower, mallow, violet, milkweed, wild rose and aster.

A small list of nectar plants include aster, goldenrod, privet, vetch, dogbane, dogwood, buddleia, Joe Pye weed, milkweed, ciborium, wild rose, marigold, zinnia, butterfly bush, cosmos, cushion mum, dandelion, red clover, purple coneflower, strawberry, chickweed, thistle, black-eyed Susan, rotting fruit and Shasta daisy.

In Illinois, and Pekin especially, there are “dozens of varieties of butterflies,” and, according to Cook, “we do see them here in the park.”

A list of butterflies they’ve seen on a regular basis in the park include monarchs, painted ladies, black swallowtail, fritillary, red-spotted purple, and buckeye, to name some.

The Pekin Park District has maintained a butterfly garden for years. According to Cook, the original butterfly garden was located at the Arena and was put in by the previous gardener.

“We moved it to a more visible location so more children could enjoy it,” she said, noting that they “planted mostly butterfly-attracting plants and, because I do my best gardening at the park, I donated my home plants.”

Cook said the park’s butterfly garden, which is now located in between Royal Avenue and the children’s playground across from the lagoon, is set up in a “mirror image” fashion, meaning that the garden is set up in a circle with identical plants on each side. The garden is a 20-by-20-foot circle surrounded by autumn joy sedum, which blooms in the fall. Stepping stones lead to a bench painted in, well, butterflies. Next to the bench is a butterfly house where, according to Cook, “a butterfly could go inside the house and rest from the rain if it wanted to.”

Although Cook is hard-pressed to say butterflies actually have used the house for shelter in this way, she does know for a fact that people enjoy the butterfly garden, butterfly house included.

“I often see people taking pictures of their children watching the butterflies, and I’ve also seen couples having a romantic moment or just sitting on the bench reading a book. It makes me feel good to see people enjoying it so much.”

“When we designed this butterfly garden, my goal was to see immediate effects — and almost immediately my goal was met. This butterfly garden blooms from May to mid-October. Kids love it. You can see them pointing at the butterflies. We see mothers trying to identify butterflies for their children. People really seem to enjoy it. We’ve received lots of compliments on it.”

The park’s butterfly garden includes New England Aster, coriopsis, mums, daisies, lilies, amsonia, black-eyed Susan, autumn joy sedum, zinias, tropical milkweed, butterfly bush, hardy hibiscus, stachys, iris, hyssop, cleome and more. “This will be our third year for the butterfly garden,” Cook said, adding, “It will be fabulous.”

Butterfly gardening is nothing new to Cook, who used to raise monarch butterflies at her home. She also tagged monarch butterflies for the Monarchs Migrating program through the Monarch Watch — a program that helps scientists monitor the monarch population and their migratory routes.

She recalls an awkward incident that happened one Saturday over Labor Day weekend when the monarchs were migrating through. “It was on a Saturday and I wasn’t working, but I was at the butterfly park tagging monarchs. Someone called the cops on me,” Cook said, rolling her eyes. “They thought I was killing butterflies.”

“I explained to the park police that it was a humane tagging program, and how I do it and then send them on their way to Mexico. I explained that I was totally sending them free. Dozens of monarchs from Pekin were found in Mexico through the program, but I don’t do it anymore because I don’t have the time.”

Cook said the park has another, smaller garden that attracts “hundreds” of butterflies, but nobody ever sees them but park officials like herself and Bill Thompson, the park’s seasonal gardening assistant.

“Butterflies like mint, but mint is an invasive plant. We use it as a ground cover by Dragon Land,” Cook said. “It draws hundreds of buckeye butterflies that nobody but us get to see, because Dragon Land is closed when this phenomenon happens.”

Cook insists that no chemicals are used in the park, and she believes that’s a good thing for everybody. “It’s wonderful to see people enjoying nature in a chemical-free environment with their children, taking pictures and using our park gardens to highlight the special moments in their lives.”

Carl Bopp, a Pekin resident, said he likes “shooting pictures of flowers, bugs, mushrooms and butterflies in the park.” He believes that “the park has such a beautiful variety of plants. We’re lucky to have the butterfly gardens in Pekin. Suzanne does a great job.”

Click photo to enlargePlanting wildflowers is an easy way to enhance a yard, particularly with mixed-flower meadows and border gardens.

Nowadays, planting a small wildflower garden, or large meadow, is relatively simple, thanks to ready-made wildflower seed mixes like the new line from Pennington Seed Inc.

Each mix is designed around the needs of specific planting environments, with general purpose, regional and specialized varieties available. There are special mixes for northeast, southern and Texas gardens, as well as mixes that focus on hummingbird and butterfly gardens.

The mixes are available at Lowe’s, Home Depot and independent garden centers that carry Pennington products.

Here are 10 tips for creating a wildflower garden, small or large, courtesy Russ Nicholson, senior agronomist for Pennington Seed Inc.:
Know your wildflowers. Annual wildflowers live one year and grow quickly, while perennial wildflowers return each year from the same colony of roots, and some may eventually build a community of flowers.

Plan ahead when planting. Annuals bloom quickly. Once planted, they will likely fade before other wildflower species. Perennials can be planted during any time of the year, best in early spring or fall, but most need a winter before blooming. When planting a mix of annuals and perennials, you should plant in the spring or fall for the annuals to bloom the first year and perennials the second year.

Select the right

varieties. For optimal performance and beauty, it’s best to select varieties based on your specific climate and landscaping needs.

Find a suitable planting bed. It’s important to choose a planting area where water does not stand after rain. This ensures seed health during the critical phases of germination and establishment.

Test the site. A soil test is used to evaluate soil condition and nutrient levels, namely pH, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. A soil’s pH determines how well plants are able to access the nutrients they need. Homeowners can purchase a home soil test kit or have their soil tested by their local extension service. Because soil pH tends to change over time, you should test regularly, about every other year.

Correct pH issues in soil before planting. Depending on the results of your pH test, apply a soil amendment, such as lime or gypsum, to correct any issues in the soil. This will create a better environment for roots to grow and may improve nutrient uptake. If desired, you can also add compost to the soil to improve the overall health, or tilth, of the soil.

Conserve water. You should strive for a landscape that is more water efficient, utilizes less water over time and is healthier. Along with being more resilient, plants receiving proper nutrition have healthier, larger root systems that make best use of available water. This allows your wildflowers to remain bright and colorful during periods of drought.

Monitor weeds. Frequently monitor flower beds, especially in the early stages, and keep brush away from beds to prevent weed or grass encroachment. If weeds become an issue, it’s best to spot treat with a weed control product as needed.

Combat plant-damaging insects. The best defenses from problem insects are healthy, actively growing, well-maintained plants. Healthy plants have an enhanced ability to thrive under stress, including damage caused by insects, with no adverse, long-term effects.

Remember to stop and smell … In following these steps, everyone from enthusiasts to master gardeners can take more time to enjoy their beautiful wildflower gardens and landscapes each year.

Learn more about Pennington Seed Inc. at www.penningtonusa.com.

___
Kathy Van Mullekom is gardening columnist for the Daily Press, Newport News, Va.; e-mail her at kvanmullekom@aol.com; follow her at roomandyard.com/diggin, Facebook.com/kathyvanmullekom, Pinterest.com/digginin and Twitter.com/diggindirt.

Tweet

Welcome to the most colorful time of year in the garden. There are literally oodles of flowers that can be planted in the spring garden, many of which are specific to a certain part of the country. Annuals, perennials, and a wide number of shrubs and trees can be used in the garden to add more color. Remember that many fruit trees also have lovely blossoms in the spring. This is the time to plant them!

As usual, the best way for you to ensure success for your flowering plants is proper soil preparation. The soils your flowering plants grow in directly affect the success or failures you have with them. By preparing the soil in your flower garden with organic matter and nutrients you will have far greater success and fewer pest and disease problems.

The addition of organic matter along with other nutrients and minerals from natural sources will make your soil into a perfect growing medium for healthy and productive flower gardens. The key is in bringing your soil to life with natural materials that convert to plant food through the activities of a myriad of microorganisms that work constantly to take organic matter and other soil minerals and gradually feed your plants, as they need food.

Instead of dousing them with some chemical cocktail that comes in a box or bag, natural plant foods from organic composts, minerals, and natural/ organic fertilizers offer plants a complete diet. Natural plant foods from these sources also increase the beneficial biological activity in your soil and compete with pests and disease organisms for space or eat these bad guys outright.

When planning and planting your natural flower garden it is always a good idea to keep in mind that most flowers perform best if you continuously harvest or cut flowers from them. It is not a good idea to allow flowers to die on the plant unless you are trying to produce seed for next season. Plants expend a lot of energy to produce seed and annuals will often die after seed is successfully produced on the plant. This can shorten the productive lifespan of your flowers.

The practice of “Deadheading” is the removal of spent flowers from your flowering plants. Deadheading  actually can extend the productivity of your flowering plants by weeks and months longer than when the spent blossoms are left on the plant. It also makes the plants look much cleaner.

You can eat fresh, delicious salads all summer long, said local Master Gardener Jon Griffin, if you plant and tend a 4-by-8 foot garden box commonly known as a “raised bed.”

To help you get things off the ground, and out of it, Griffin has built a bunch of garden boxes for participants in a workshop he will teach this week on raised-bed gardening.

For Cowlitz County residents who don’t own a truck, Griffin said he’ll deliver the boxes.

A teacher who worked in Alaska’s Department of Contracts, Griffin and his wife, Sue, moved to the Oak Point area in 2009. He immediately took the Master Gardener training offered every other year by the local WSU Extension Office.

He’s been spreading gardening know-how like mulch ever since.

“I look at the needs,” said Griffin, who has grown vegetables for 25 years. “How do you teach about gardening and make it fun?”

At plant seed clinics and speaking engagements, he has tried to “help people out in the least intrusive manner. We don’t say, ‘You have to grow an organic garden.’ We show why it’s a good thing to do. We also have resources to help.”

Master Gardeners are always learning themselves, he said.

At the first clinic they offered on how to save seeds from you own plants for the next growing season, “35 to 40 people showed up and we were unprepared” with seed trays. The next time, we were prepared. It was so smooth.”

When you do buy seeds, he said, try to buy in quantity. “What are you paying for in a $3.29 pack of Burpees?” he said. “Packaging.”

At the raised-bed workshop, Griffin will give a 15-minute presentation and then answer whatever questions people have.

“I want them to see how much they can grow with a little bit of thought. “I’m hoping to create a situation where we can do more each year.”

The basics — seeds, soil, light and water — seem simple enough, but there are so many variables and so much experience that goes into a successful garden, he said.

Master Gardeners, who complete 90 hours of training, commit to volunteer 90 hours of service in the two years following the training. This year in Cowlitz County, 65 Master Gardeners will each contribute 60 years of service, including clinics like Griffin’s.

“We’re a volunteer organization,” he said. “We try to help in the best way we can. Most of us love it.”

Chat with a passionate gardener for 20 minutes and you get that idea.

Griffin said we’ve all been gifted with a water meter in our hands.

“Put your finger in the soil. If it comes out something on it, the soil if moist enough. If it comes out clean, that plant may need a drink.

There are tricks to keeping plants moist, he said, including the strategic use of furrows (little ditches dug around plants) and mulch, a protective cover of some kind to prevent weeds and preserve moisture and nutrients. One coda: Don’t use wood chips, Griffin said, especially cedar chips — they’re toxic.

Group shade-loving plants together — in the shade. Put the sun-worshippers in the same spot, too. Grouping like this also makes it easier to get the right amount of water to the right plants, he said.

“Three to four layers of grass clippings” between rows of plants will keep soil from drying out and help control weeds, Griffin said. “We love TDN,” he added, referring to newsprint from the local paper. “You use soy-based ink, so it’s not poisonous to the soil.”

When you thin your rows of plants, leaving about three finger-widths between each seedling, don’t throw away those delicate ones you remove, Griffin said. “Toss them in a salad. Wow, what a good move — those thin radish sprouts are delicious.”

Weeds always stir up lively conversation, and again, the Master Gardener said some things are effective but nobody will ever eradicate “centuries of seeds” that teem in the earth.

Read seed packets and books and online information so you know “what is the nature of a plant. What do they need and not need? Once you get them in the ground, you don’t have to bother them all summer long.”

Most of all, learn from each other, the Master Gardener said. “Talk to the old guy at the end of the road who has a great garden.”

Griffin loves to talk tomatoes, rhapsodizing about Polish Linguisas, a hunky roma variety that slices up like a beefsteak and makes great sauce.

He also mentioned the Black Krim heirloom tomato, a gift he received from Community Garden supporter Joan Lemieux, and San Marzanos.

Griffin can share tips on simple homemade greenhouse covers for earlier and longer growth seasons, what plants can go in the ground earlier than others, what grows best in raised beds and what needs more space, how to deal with clay soil and the best wood to use if you build your own garden boxes (Western red cedar, NO chemically treated wood).

“Raised beds are so handy,” he said. “They’re neater, more compact, you have more control of the soil and the moisture and the fertilizer, and they keep the soil several degrees warmer.”

Think before you squish is the advice here. Many garden bugs are beneficial and aid organic gardening practices.

For years, well-meaning gardeners routinely maimed, swatted, sprayed and squished every bug they could get their hands on. However careful observation of nature and the move to organic practices have shown that encouraging “good” bugs, or beneficial insects (the politically correct name) is one way to give Mother Nature a hand. She was doing a fine job, however the use of pesticides, combined with overzealous tidiness resulted in loss of normal bio-diversity in our gardens.

Just as when you take antibiotics, and your doctor advises yogurt to normalize the flora within your body, the attraction of beneficials back to your garden can restore balance and harmony in your back yard.

Gardening Tips: The Good Bugs – Hoover Flies, LadyBugs, and Beetles

How about “Think before you squish” as your mantra for the new season…? Remember that you may not always know why this creature is climbing the clematis, lurking on the lobelia, or sniffing your snapdragons.

It is generally agreed that aphids are “bad”. They spread disease, and cause problems throughout the garden. However, aphids need to be present on your rose bush for a week or two before the beneficial insects will show up. Recent studies show that injured plant tissue sends out distress signals (!) attracting appropriate predators. Be patient, and keep your spray trigger finger occupied with something else, like knitting.

Beneficial insects are attracted to plants from families including compositae (daisy family); the mint family (all kinds of mints, lemon balm, and more); umbelliferae (carrot family, which includes anything which makes an umbel, or umbrella-like shape in the flower head: parsley, fennel, for instance); and the brassica family, a huge family which includes cabbages, cauliflower (all the “stinky when overcooked” vegetables) oriental greens, arugula, radish and more.

All these produce flowers containing the type of nectar which beneficial insects use as fuel for flight and movement, just as humans use carbohydrates, and “bad” bugs are the protein course. Now a look at three common beneficials, and how to attract them to your garden:

Beetles.

You undoubtedly know these large, fast moving, shiny metallic-blue-black beetles! Their full title is predacious ground beetles. I am always dismayed to see one crushed on the sidewalk, the victim of a shoe whose owner may have had good, but misdirected, intentions. Beetles thrive in deep, loose humusy mulch, like the bouncy kind found in the woods, where leaves, coniferous needles, etc., have formed a soft carpet on the ground. They snooze underneath pieces of rotten logs and stones and are nocturnal, dining ravenously in the dark upon cutworms, root maggots, and slug eggs, miscellaneous larvae and pupae of undesirables, flea beetles, and leaf hoppers.
To attract more beetles, imitate nature. Along a shady edge, away from foot traffic, dig a ditch three to six inches deep, and a foot wide. Plant mint, or lemon balm, or even red or white clover, along the inside edges to prevent erosion and to provide low ground cover. Drop shovels of peat moss, leaf mulch, coniferous needles, whatever, here and there along the slopes, then place a couple of big, flat rocks in the ditch. The beetles will hide under the rocks in the daytime. Beetles are supposed to be attracted to the nectar of evening primrose.

Syrphid Flies

AKA “hover flies”, so named because they can hover in one place, resemble slender black and yellow bees. Syrphids are important pollinators, but there is another reason to attract them: their larvae prey on many undesirable insects, and most especially, aphids. Adult syrphids drink the nectar from the flowers, lay eggs, and the larvae gobble up aphids.
With the naked eye it is possible to see eggs on the undersides of leaves near aphid colonies, laid in two symmetrical rows by the female, a hundred at a time. Once hatched, the larvae decimate aphid families in a hurry. The 1/2″ creature is often mistaken for a nasty “worm” or slug, so if you come across a legless, see-through greenish-beige creature, slightly pointy at one end, do not kill him, but wish him ‘bon appetit’! To attract syrphids, choose plants of the umbelliferae family: fennel, dill, caraway, parsley, coriander, yarrow, or allow carrots to winter over. All produce symmetrical seed-heads called umbels, which are a favourite of many beneficials.

Buckwheat, usually planted as a cover crop, can be sporadically seeded anywhere in the garden, and not only does it enrich the soil when turned in, but according to a recent Oregon State University study, the flowers are maximally attractive to syrphids. (Some people even consume buckwheat “greens” as food – check it out.) Other favourite flowers: cornflowers (bachelor buttons), marigolds, chamomile, coreopsis, and feverfew.

Lady Beetles

AKA “ladybugs”, feed heavily on aphids. If you think about purchasing them, remember…in most cases, the ladybugs go into dormancy or diapause when packaged, and when they are set free their natural instinct is to fly away. Don’t waste your money, instead attract ladybugs by your choices of plant materials. Become familiar with the ladybug in the larval stage. It looks a bit evil, like an elongated grey-black dragon with many little legs, and orange to red markings. The larvae fix themselves onto leaves, trees, or wood surfaces then pupate for about a week, emerging as the familiar round ladybug of our childhood.
All stages of ladybugs from larva to adult feed on aphids. Ladybugs are attracted to cosmos, especially white, and to goldenrod, coreopsis, fennel, yarrow and other umbelliferae. All are easily grown from seed. Lady beetles and other beneficials including the spider (yes, he is beneficial) like to lay their eggs amongst the long grass, so try to leave a strip un-mowed if you can.

It is good manners to provide your insect guests with a drink, in this case water, to wash down the aphids. This can be achieved simply: placing a plastic tray or any kind of pan in your garden and fill it with water. Put rocks in the water for them to stand on while they drink.

Garden to do list for may

It is getting toward the end of the spring season by May.

-Be sure and keep things neat and tidy as the season ends.

-Add anything you used as winter mulch to your compost bin.

-Don’t forget to turn the compost often and keep it moist.

-Inspect the mulch and be sure you still have 4-6 inches of it. If not then add more fresh mulch to your beds.

Gardening Tips: To do list tips for garden chores in May

-If you have plants that are top heavy with flowers, you will need to stake them well to prevent breakage.

-Any faded or spent blooms on roses should be pruned.

-Keep vines tied up well and guide them to grow where you want them.

-If you have strawberry plants that are new keep the flowers pinched off until the second year and you will have a better harvest of larger strawberries.

-Move your houseplants outdoors for a few hours every day.

-Plant new rose bushes.

-Keep the weeds from getting too large before removing them.

-Keep all plants watered as needed.

-Water in the morning to prevent disease problems.

-If fruit trees have suckers they need to be removed.

-Protect any fruiting plants like watermelon or cantaloupe from coming in contact with wet soil. Place hay under the fruit for protection.

-Sow seeds of annuals like Poppies, Larkspurs and Asters.

-Cuttings can be taken from most plants now and rooted with a rooting hormone and placed in peat moss.

-Plant any trees or evergreens before the weather gets too hot.

-Stake your tomato plants well.

-Continue to plant succession crops in your vegetable garden.

-Water your plants with compost tea, by putting compost in a barrel of water and let it stand in the heat for awhile. The solids will settle to the bottom and the water can be used for all plants, indoors or out.

-For a more formal look you can prune hedges or shrubs into pretty shapes. This pruning will keep them compact and bushy.

-Re-pot any plant that is root bound. If you see roots coming out of the bottom of a container then it is time to re-pot in a container one inch bigger in diameter. The roots may have to be trimmed a little bit. Be sure the roots are not growing in a circle when you put them in their new container. This circling will strangle the plant.

-For larger flowers always pinch off any side shoots such as the Peony.

-Take herb cuttings to start new herb plants.

-Harvest herbs by pruning and dry for later use.

-When you are sitting outside in the evening think about which white flowering plant would be good to plant in your garden. Moonflower seeds grow fast and look great in the moonlight.

-Enjoy the aromatic herbs and beautiful flowers of your garden.

-Don’t work too hard as it is easy to over do things when you have so much garden work to do.