Chemical products can help you control the pests and diseases that could damage the lawn and garden you’ve worked on so hard. But if you’re going to use chemicals in your yardwork, it’s important that you know how to use them correctly. Here, Ortho answers the questions most commonly asked about its chemical products and how to use them.

What products are the best to use if I have children or pets: liquids, powders or granules?
All of these formulations can be used if they are applied and stored according to label directions. However, liquid products are generally preferable because, once dried, they adhere to the sprayed surface. Unless specified otherwise on the label, you should also keep children and pets out of treated areas until the product has dried.

Gardening Tips: Using Chemical Lawn Garden Products Safely

How do I know when my vegetables are safe to eat?
First, consult the label to insure the product can be used on that type of plant. If the plant isn’t listed, don’t use it. Each type of pesticide degrades at different rates on different plant surfaces, it is important to review the pre-harvest interval on the label and pick and eat fruit or vegetables only after the prescribed time period.

If I wait the recommended period on your label, will there still be traces of pesticides on the vegetables?
Edible crops may contain very small amounts of pesticides, even after waiting the prescribed number of days shown on the label. However, all this residue is negligible, it should cause no harmful effects, and the vegetable or fruit may be eaten. Keep in mind the residue tolerance levels are jointly set by the EPA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are the same for any fruit or vegetable in a grocery store. As a general rule, always rinse fruits and vegetables before eating.

What is the best way to store chemical products?
Always store chemicals in their original containers. Never store chemicals in any food or beverage containers. Chemicals are best stored in a locked, well-ventilated space, out of the sun, and away from open flames and pilot lights. Always store products out of the reach of children and pets and away from foods.

How do I dispose of diluted spray?
Plan ahead. Mix only the amount you actually need. If you’ve mixed too much the best way to dispose of the excess is to spray other plants listed on the label. Don’t pour any pesticides down the drain — most pesticides are harmful to the beneficial organisms that work in septic tanks and sewage treatment plants.

by Stephen Gent, Owner
McDade’s Nursery

Stephen has 14+ years of experience in horticulture as Publisher and Marketing Director for Nursery Management and Production, Greenhouse Management and Production and Garden Center magazine.

An avid gardener with a lifelong passion for plants, he enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience with customers.

It’s Big. It’s Back. It’s Better than Ever!

It’s the 3rd Annual McDade’s $1,000 Extreme Garden Makeover Drawing. Transform your landscape into a garden paradise. One lucky McDade’s customer will win the $1,000 professionally installed garden makeover.

The drawing starts June 1st and ends June 30th. For every $20 purchased in June, your name is placed into the Makeover drawing. A $40 purchase receives 2 entries and so on – there’s no limit to the number of entries!

The $1,000 Prize includes:
$500 Shopping Spree at McDade’s Nursery
$250 Professional Landscape Installation
$250 Nature’s Guide Organic Products

Previous winners include Dave Davis, 2010 and Joanie Bechard, 2011.

The winner will be announced at the close of business June 30th.

The event is sponsored by Nature’s Guide.

June Gardening Tips

As summer temperatures start to rise, it’s important to monitor what’s happening in your garden. Here are important tips for the month of June.

If you fertilized your lawn in February or March of this year, now is the time to give it a second boost. Horticultural experts agree a spring, summer and fall fertilization schedule is the best and most effective treatment for lawns. Applying in June, gives your grass the nutrients it requires to withstand the higher temperatures we’ll see in July and August. We highly recommend using a balance 16-4-12 fertilizer formulated for the Cedar Creek Lake area.

Likewise, applying a pre-emergent on your lawn in June will help prevent unwanted weeds, especially those annoying grass burrs (sandburs). A pre-emergent prevents weed seeds from germinating. Corn gluten acts as an effective organic pre-emergent without harm to animals or children.

Remember to move the cutting height of your lawn mower up a notch. Having a taller, thicker lawn will require less watering and will keep the grass looking greener.

Watering the garden everyday causes plants to develop shallow root systems. A watering schedule of 2 – 3 times a week for longer durations is recommended as it encourages roots to grow deep. It’s also best to water early morning rather than during the heat of the day or in the evening.

During June, we see a dramatic increase in the number of pests in the garden along with different types of fungus. Be on the lookout for insect damage that can quickly destroy vegetable and flower beds. Act quickly by using an approved insecticide to prevent spread and further damage. Fungus can show up in your lawn (especially St. Augustine), on shrubs (like roses), fruit trees and in the vegetable garden.

Lastly, help protect plants and conserve water by applying a fresh layer of mulch. Mulch keeps the soil temperature cooler, keeps out weeds and retains water below the soil line. Cedar mulch is especially effective as it repels insects.

Annuals and perennials are the gardener’s palette with which to paint the landscape in spring, summer and fall. In garden borders or in massed plantings, annuals and perennials can provide anything from a riot of brilliant color to a subdued range of delicate hues. Different types of flowers may be blended for an interplay of color as the seasons change. Or, a single type may be used for consistent, season-long color. Whether you plant ten flowers or a hundred, you will enjoy the most effective flower display if you use these basic tips.

-Plan your garden carefully to achieve harmonious color blends. Complementary colors (violet and yellow, blue and orange, red and green) tend to intensify each other. Neutral or subdued hues planted between brilliant colors will prevent clashes and make the brighter colors more prominent.

-Keep in mind that perennials will remain in place for years, while annuals must be replaced every year. This allows you to experiment every year with different color schemes and planting designs. Use the perennials as the framework around which to plan the annuals. But be sure to blend the colors and blooming times carefully.

Paint Your Landscape With Color

-Frame a small or narrow lawn with a colorful annual or perennial border. Or, use a border as the edging for one side of a wide expanse of lawn. This will define the open lawn and give the garden a sense of enclosure. The foreground of green turf also intensifies the interplay of color in the garden border.

-Try planting annuals and perennials in containers for portable seasonal color.

-Bring intensity of color and pattern into a small space with annuals and perennials. The color or annuals and perennials can be warm or cool, depending upon the hue. Vibrant reds and yellows create an exciting, bold sweep of color or a dramatic accent. White, blues and violets tend to be cooler.

-A color scheme that combines warm and cool colors or intense hues and paler tints will create visual movement in the garden.

-Give annuals and perennials a neutral background, such as a fence, wall, hedge, or screen planting. An appropriate background enhances the effect and allows you to create your own personal design.

-In small gardens, every square inch of planting area is important. When you place annuals or perennials into such a setting, they almost always become an accent. Thus, annuals and perennials can bring a bright seasonal look to the garden while requiring a very limited amount of space. Colorful annuals and perennials may also enhance the lines of small formal gardens or provide spots of color to accentuate a free form curve in an informal garden.

-Planting annuals and perennials properly is an important factor in growing them successfully. Prepare planting beds by digging the soil to a depth of 12 to 18 inches. Work in plenty of peat moss, leaf mold, or compost to ensure good drainage. Space plants properly, as crowded plants grow less vigorously. If you sow seed directly in the beds, thin seedlings to give them adequate spacing.

 Cannas are elegant colorful tropical flowers that are easy to grow and pretty darn rugged! Here’s how to grow them.

About cannas

History:
Cannas are tender plants from tropical regions of the world but are easy to grow outdoors in many areas providing there is no risk of frost. They were very popular in the Victorian garden for their elegant tropical look and landscape ease. Then in many parts of the country, particularly sunny California and Florida, they became popular as city landscape plants in road medians, traffic circles and public gardens. Now they are making a come back with home gardeners who want a taste of the tropics from an easy care flowering plant–there is a canna for every taste! They range in height from 2 1/2 feet (dwarf or Opera series types) to 16′ the Omega) The dwarfs only grow to 3′ and tend to have larger flowers. The average tall canna is 4-6′. Foliage colors vary from green to purple to bronze and varigated yellow and green or even red orange with colorful flowers of pale or lemon yellow, scarlet or ruby reds, salmon or hot pinks, orange and multi-colored spotted or striped.

Gardening Tips: Grow Tropical Cannas – in Pots!

Cultivation: 
Cannas can be grown in pots, windowboxes and the ground. They make great landscaping plants to fill in large areas as they multiply each year and can form a screen or windbreak, but if you don’t want them to spread, sink pots into the ground. They prefer full sun and can take lots of rain. They aren’t fussy about soils but are big feeders I am told. They do like soil enriched with organic matter and dressed with a general fertilizer such as Miracle Grow. I add coffee grounds, egg shells, and shredded leaves regularly and sometimes Breck’s Dutch Bulb Treat 5-10-5 a couple times a year but it isn’t necessary. Cannas do well with other plants and can be underplanted with annuals, perennials, vines or shrubs. I find ferns, sedums and aloes look good, attracting and holding the moisture they adore. I like combining colors and textures– chartreuse sedums and black leaved peppers, coleus, and even trailing vines. Some cannas grow well in water too. The ideal temperature is 60F but cannas will grow at much higher or lower temperatures provided they do not get frost. Cannas make good container plants for the patio or sunroom. They don’t mind crowding but plant in good sized pots (10″) and windowboxes using a good potting compost, water and feed regularly. In a greenhouse, if temperatures are kept at 55F or above, cannas can grow and flower all year, just dead head old flowered stems from time to time– cut them off conservatively just below the last bloom as they often shoot out more flowers! Divide in spring or fall when they are more likely to be dormant. Many cannas like the Bengal Tiger, Tropicana and purple leaved varieties like Black Knight and Wyoming look beautiful even without blooms because of their colorful foliage. (More about these in upcoming aticles.)

Maintenance: 
During the growing season, keep the plants well watered and for maximum growth, use a liquid feed. Mulch also helps hold in moisture but if you underplant, you will have attractive living mulch! Dead-heading prolongs the display and keeps the plants looking tidy. Remove dead blooms and yellow or brown leaves and shred for mulch. Be sure not to remove the side-shoots below the first flowers, as these become subsequent blooms. Most cannas do not need staking.

Pests: Very few pests bother my cannas. If slugs are a problem throw some pennies in the soil with broken eggshells. Beer placed in shallow dishes or film canisters attracts them as well and they drown. Few other pests or diseases attack cannas but occasionally small caterpillers or “leaf rollers” may cause damage that is easily confused with slug damage. The leaves will be rolled and sticky and often have a few distinct holes in them. Remove and consult a local nursery for the best remedies.

After Summer: 
At the end of the season, make sure the plants are carefully labelled before the blooming ends or you may get confused over colors and varieties! I do! In colder climates, you may want to bring the pots indoors to a sunroom or near windows before that first frost. If they are in the ground, as soon as frosts blacken the foliage, dig up the rhizomes and store in frost free conditions such as a garage or cellar. You can pack the roots into peat or newspaper to keep them moist. Do not allow the roots to dry out completely or they may shrivel up and die. In green all year climates like mine, I leave them in the pots and cut back on water but would never leave them outside for a freeze. I put them under row covers or in the back porch under sheets and blankets. Cannas can be left in the ground permanently in some places, covered with a thick mulch to protect from frost before winter. Overwintered plants may be divided in spring but do not rush it. To divide them, wait til they put forth new shoots and easily break apart. Pot in any good potting soil in a 6″ or larger pot. When I pull mine apart and they aren’t dormant I stick them in water and they keep for a long time.

The Minnetrista Garden Fair will take place this weekend, offering free gardening tips, demonstrations, food, vendors and plant sales.

The event, which attracted more than 5,000 visitors in 2011, will take place from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sunday.

The fair will give participants the opportunity to enjoy food and products from more than 30 different vendors.

Offering advice and tips on different outdoor problems, Minnetrista will host presentations on several different topics.

Food vendors will include Compulsion Coffee, Baskin Robbins and Grand Grilling To Go.

An education tent will be available for participants to view hourly presentations by Minnetrista staff and outside presenters.

Presentations on Saturday include Jason Donati, a stormwater educator from the Muncie Delaware Stormwater Management who will be presenting ways to deal with different water issues. The presentation will include information on “rain barrels” and a walk to the Minnetrista Rain Gardens.

A representative from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Entomology, Kristy Stultz, will discuss emerald ash borer, an green Asian beetle that is highly destructive to ash trees.

Stultz will be speaking about the threat the beetle causes to wildlife in Muncie, and will provide those in attendance an “action plan” to help fight the problem.

Sunday’s activities will include a presentation on the virtues of composting and offer advice to those who want to start their own compost piles.

The event is free and open to the public.

 

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Garden Soil: A friend of mine, who lives on a sand hill, told me he hired somebody to bring in a truck load of clay to balance up his soil. I looked at the soil, and was skeptical he had any clay. So I did a soil test using my quart jar, a sample of soil, and water method. The test revealed he had about 40 percent sand and 60 percent silt. Whatever he had brought in, it was not clay.

The point of this story is, be certain of what you’re paying for. The silt was OK, but it was not what he wanted. Personally, I think it was a mistake to have clay brought in. He would have been better off to have brought in a truck load of compost, or manure, or other humus material.

Being a weatherman:  As a gardener, you need to understand the weather, at least the weather where you live.  The weather is both your best friend and your worst enemy—and you can’t do a thing about it. But you can use it to your advantage, or plan to deal with the weather if it’s adverse. One of the most common mistakes home gardeners make is to plant too late in the season. The weather gets too hot too fast, and the crops do poorly, or in the case of tomatoes, they don’t produce any tomatoes. There are only a handful of crops that should only be planted after it gets hot; all the cucurbits (melons, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, etc), and…I can’t think of any others. Yes, frost is a consideration, but if you understand your local weather, and watch it, and make good judgments, you can usually error on the side of early, and come out just fine.

Biggest Gardening Mistakes:

Undernourising: The biggest mistake gardeners make is under-nourishing their garden. If you haul out hundreds of pounds of produce during the growing season, you better put hundreds of pounds of compost, manure, or fertilizer back into the ground for the next season. Here’s how you know if your garden has enough nutrients:

Plants should have deep green color. Leaves should be large, tomato leaves should be 4-6 inches long, broccoli leaves should be 10-12 inches long, beet leaves should be 8-10 inches long, corn leaves should be 4-6 inches wide.

Fruit should be large, tomatoes should be as large as your hand, ears of corn should be 10-12 inches long, beets should be 3-4 inches across, onions should be 3-4 inches across, and broccoli heads should be as large as your hand. Do you get the idea?

Mature corn | Photo courtesy of Rex Jensen

All plants respond to fertilizer, and some plants really respond to it. Corn is fun to grow because it responds almost immediately to whatever you give it. When corn is about two feet high, give it a shot of nitrogen, and do it again as it begins to tassel out, and you’ll see the difference. My dad used to say, “You can just hear the corn growing.”

Potatoes take more nitrogen than you think, it really makes a difference, and the increased production is pronounced. In fact, there isn’t much that doesn’t respond to nitrogen, it is the foundation nutrient of most plants. Strong, fast growing plants tend to overpower weeds, and they can withstand the ravages of pests – like squash bugs – and the fruit is larger, more tender, better tasting, and has a more desirable appearance. Weak, slow growing plants produce poor fruit, poor flavor, are often bitter and unpalatable.

Missing the planting window: In Orem, I always planted my garden, including tomatoes, the first week of April. Only twice in 11 years did I lose some tomatoes to frost. There were years we had frost, but I simply covered the tomatoes with a plastic bucket, or a box, or some plastic, and they made it through the night without any damage. In most cases, there are only one or two nights when frost will be a problem.

Because plants will still put down roots, even if the tops aren’t growing, when the weather does warm, the plants are better prepared to take advantage of the warmth, and will have a growth burst.

For fall planting, you must calculate your planting times to account for the shorter days, cooler temperatures, and frost. As the days shorten and cool, plants slow down, and fruit may not mature before frost comes. Tomatoes, for example, can be planted in the fall, they will set on, but probably will not ripen before it freezes. This is why tomatoes are planted in the spring.

But melons and corn can be planted for a fall harvest, and all the cool weather crops can be planted in the fall because frost will not affect them. Broccoli, beets, carrots, lettuce, green beans, and even onions make good fall crops.

Erratic or improper watering: If you have well drained soil (not too much clay), you can water deep, and fairly often. But watering frequency and amounts must be adjusted as the days get longer and warmer, and your plants get larger, then you must back off of the watering as the weather cools in the fall and the days get shorter.

Too much water is also not good. A good rule of thumb for watering in Washington County is this: if sufficient water is given, you shouldn’t have to water more than twice a week. If your soil is quite sandy, maybe three times a week. Watering everyday is generally not a good idea; if you’re doing this; your soil needs more humus and organic matter.  Alfalfa fields can be watered once every two weeks because the alfalfa is thick and shades the ground, generally this is not the case in gardens, and the soil is exposed to the sun and will dry out faster.

With too little water, plant leaves will turn yellow, begin to wilt, and fruit will ripen prematurely. Know your soil, know your weather, and observe what your plants are doing.

email: rjensen@stgnews.com

twitter: @STGnews

Copyright 2012 St. George News.

Rock gardening has always been associated with rather strenuous work. It involved moving massive rocks and lugging tons of sand and gravel. This is impossible for me but I’ve developed a deep interest in learning to grow these miniature plants (and eventually shrubs) well.

Wooden Horse Troughs

One of the newest fads seems to be to construct waist high wooden horse troughs of deck wood planks. Someone experienced in carpentry work should construct these. These should also be considered permanent fixtures – not something to be moved around.

You can adapt this to your needs. I would suggest measuring a comfortable work height for you and having the top of the trough level with that height. This would work if you are in a wheelchair too–just make it high enough for you to work easily. Dimensions are pretty much up to you, as are the length and width. If you are in a wheelchair, I’d suggest you make it as long as you wish, but have the width be no more than 18-24 inches depending on your reach length.

Gardening Tips: Containers for Rock Gardens

Since you will be growing miniature shrubs and plants, I suggest a depth of 18 inches of soil mixture is adequate. If the trough is higher than this, use anything you want to fill the container up to where the soil needs to begin. A good growing media would be a mix of gravel, sand, and soil. Base the exact media composition on the needs of the plants you use.

In addition to plants, pieces of tufa rock were buried partway to make it look like a mountainous terrain. Feel free to use any accents you wish as you create garden. These could be challenging to your imagination! Perhaps you would like to mimic a particular natural scene you enjoy? Gravel makes suitable mulch.

Hypertufa Troughs

I’ve written about constructing hypertufa troughs in a previous articles. Please refer to those articles for details on their construction and suggested uses. The biggest disadvantage of these troughs is their weight. I find them impossible to lift and know other people with physical problems would too.

Styrofoam Ice Chests

An inexpensive container could be made from a styrofoam ice chest Punch several holes in the bottom for drainage–I’d suggest at least 10 holes the width of a pencil. Ask your local craft store for a spray paint that can be used on styrofoam if you wish to paint it.

Set the chest on a couple of bricks to aid in drainage. Fill it with the planting medium suitable for the type plants you will be growing. Add some rocks for decoration or to mimic a landscape, and mulch it with gravel. Chicken grit works well for the smaller size planter – it looks more in proportion than larger gravel does. This type planter would not be suitable to leave outside during a cold winter. Move it to an unheated porch or garage for protection.

Clay Pots

I’ve experimented with planting sempervivums in some azalea style clay pots. They are less likely to rot in clay pots that dry out quickly than they would in plastic pots. Air is better able to get to the roots in clay. If you wish to grow an invasive plant, consider planting them in their own clay pot to help prevent the roots from taking over larger plantings. The clay pots will also be used to tender perennials that need to be moved inside when cold weather returns.

Traditional Raised Garden Bed

A final alternative is to simply build a raised bed, fill it with appropriate soil, and plant your alpine plants in it. I had a raised herb garden that was converted to a rock garden several years ago. I mixed a 50-pound bag of chicken grit with the soil, planted the garden, and mulched with white gravel. The plants did very well and even made it through a very wet winter. The whole bed is about 2′x3′x10″ high. I have Penstemons, dianthus, a miniature grass, alpine sunflowers, and several other plants growing quite nicely in it. I did have to pull out one plant that simply grew too out of proportion to the rest of the plants out in the fall.

As promised, our First Lady Michelle Obama has published her first book. It is a book about gardening, and if “The Help” is any indication, it is sure to be a bestseller, because isn’t it probably the same thing, except with Mexicans? Apparently, no! “Michelle’s Secret Garden,” as we like to call it, or “American Grown,” as it is actually called, tells the story of the White House Kitchen Garden. It also offers gardening tips, and “the story of how, together, in gardens large and small, we have begun to grow a healthier nation.” Because this new book costs over twenty dollars and Amazon.com is not yet accepting food stamps, the actual contents of the book will remain a mystery to most of the country, including your FLOTUS correspondent, who is not about to spend thirty dollars on a book about vegetables when the ice cream shelf in her freezer is running low on supplies. Thankfully, an excerpt from the book is available online, so we’ll just read that and use our imaginations to come up with the rest.

“American Grown” begins with Michelle Obama looking up at the sky. She was probably on a balcony, wearing some sort of gown.

On March 20, 2009, I was like any other hopeful gardener with a pot out on the windowsill or a small plot by the back door. I was nervously watching the sky. Would it freeze? Would it snow? Would it rain? I had spent two months settling into a new house in a new city. My girls had started a new school; my husband, a new job. My mother had just moved in upstairs. And now I was embarking on something I had never attempted before: starting a garden.

But this was not going to be just any garden— it would be a very public garden. Cameras would be trained on its beds, and questions would be asked about what we had planted and why we had planted it. The garden was also being planted on a historic landscape: the South Lawn of the White House. Here even the tomatoes and beans would have a view of the towering Washington Monument.

“Just how socialist is that arugula?” is her favorite question, she probably says, later in the book.

And over the past three years, our White House Kitchen Garden has bloomed into so much more. It’s helped us start a new conversation about the food we eat and how it affects our children’s health. It’s helped us raise awareness about our crisis of childhood obesity and the threat it poses to our children’s future. And it led to the creation of Let’s Move!, a nationwide initiative to solve this problem so our children can grow up healthy.

So there is your Michelle Obama gardening book: “I started this garden, and you can start a garden, or you can continue your reign over that booth at the Cheesecake Factory. It’s your funeral.” In addition to the brief excerpt, there is a salad recipe featured on the Good Morning America web site, buried somewhere under a giant picture of ribs and Emeril’s Fried Chicken and Buttermilk Waffles. [ABC News]

Having daughters has helped me to realize that things are not actually as simple as I thought they were. For example, there are so many types of shampoo. They have shampoo for brown hair, red hair and blonde hair. (I am still waiting to see some for gray hair!) Shampoo can make your hair more oily or less oily, straighten or curl your hair or make it look fluffier. Silly me, I just wanted one than would make my hair less dirty.

Some things quickly become more difficult than you would expect. Tomato gardening can be like that. When you see these mild-mannered fruits in the store you would never expect there were so many troubles that could plague them. Do not despair though, a little planning and care can help you to avoid most tomato problems.

Select tomato varieties that are disease-resistant. This may be your only chance to control certain diseases.

The letters behind a variety’s name tell what diseases it is resistant to: T for tobacco mosaic virus, V for verticillium wilt, F for fusarium wilt and N for nematodes. View a partial list of disease resistant vegetable varieties at https://utextension.tennessee.edu/benton/Documents/DiseaseResistVegHG.pdf.

Tomato spotted wilt virus is spread by thrips. Usually the top of the plant looks stunted or wilted. The young leaves may turn yellow and often have dark discolorations. The veins on the underside of leaves may thicken and turn purple. Fruit can have rings or circles on them. Ripe fruit can have yellow circles or semicircles. The stem may have long brown lesions.

Once tomatoes get the disease, there is no control. Some varieties of tomato are resistant to TSWV, although they may not be completely immune. Resistant varieties include Amelia, Stiletto, Bella Rosa, Top Gun, Crista and Muriel (a Roma-type variety). Some resistant varieties may not be as flavorful as other home garden varieties. Leave tomatoes on the vine until they are fully ripe to improve their flavor.

Later-planted tomatoes may have fewer problems with TSWV. You can plant as late as July 10. Thrips spread TSWV, but spraying for thrips will not control the disease. Destroy infected plants as quickly as possible early in the season to prevent spread. Seal infected plants up in a plastic bag. Even after the plant is pulled up, thrips can leave the plant to spread the virus. Late in the season, you may just want to let infected plants finish ripening the fruit they have.

Do not plant tomatoes where you had tomatoes, Irish potatoes or peppers planted last year. Diseases can over-winter in the soil and attack the tomatoes the next year. If possible, try to plant tomatoes in areas that grew grass or corn last year. Mulch around plants but do not let the mulch touch the base of the plant.

Leaf rolling can be caused by heavy fruit set, wet soils and high light intensity.

Water properly and reduce pruning if possible. The condition is usually harmless.

Tomatoes flowers will not set fruit and blossoms will drop off if temperatures are not right or if the plant is water stressed. Temperatures at night should be 55-75 degrees for best fruit set.

Nighttime temperatures above 90 degrees will especially cause problems. Water twice a week in hot weather (3/4 inch each time) and mulch plants. There is a blossom set chemical you can spray if you can locate it in the garden centers.

Once a plant sets plenty of fruit, the plant will not set more fruit and this can cause blossom drop. Some gardeners maintain that over-fertilization with nitrogen can also lower flower production and fruit set.

Fruit cracking can be related to the variety of tomato grown. It can also be caused by uneven watering or fertilization. Select varieties that are resistant to cracking. Work to keep the water supply even (proper watering and mulching) and fertilize about every 4-5 weeks (more often if using a liquid fertilizer). Be careful not to burn tender roots with dry, granular fertilizers.

The Houston County Extension office is offering a food preservation class June 13 in Perry. To register for the class, download the registration form at http://tinyurl.com/6ohhr9z. Registration deadline is June 6.

Willie Chance retired as the University of Georgia Extension agent for Houston County and is the quality control manager for Unique Landscaping of Warner Robins. Contact him at 929-1997.

The one-acre yard of Margie and Tommy Densford will be open for tours Sunday in honor of National Garden Week.

The Garden Club of Rosemark, a member of the National and Tennessee Federation of Garden Clubs, will celebrate National Garden Week, June 3-9, with events to involve and educate the community.

The festivities will begin on Sunday with Margie and Tommy Densford opening their one-acre residence at 7732 Armour Road near Millington for a garden tour from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Since last year’s tour, the Densfords have added and expanded many beds and walkways in the front and back yards. Their plant collections include many varieties of hostas, hydrangeas and Japanese maples. They also will share tips about “water wise” methods of gardening.

The custom of club members delivering fresh flowers to Rosemark businesses during National Garden Week will continue this year. Also during this special week, a Rosemark resident will be honored with the June “Yard of the Month” sign.

Club members will boost the spirits of residents at the William H. Dunlap Retirement Center by donating items including artificial flowers in florist vases to be used as Bingo prizes.

A plant swap will be June 9, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Millington Farmers Market on Easley Street. Bring labeled plants from your garden and swap them for new ones. The plant swap gives area gardeners an opportunity to share tried-and-true plants from the Millington area. Following the swap, Penny Glover and Margie Densford will remain at the Farmers Market to lead a seminar at 11 a.m. sponsored by the City Beautiful Commission titled “Recycling Garden Pots.”