By Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandale
mail@floridanewsline.com
According to NOAA (www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/), as of May 20, the forecast was for a more than 50 percent chance of higher than normal temperatures for the next three months, and up to a 40 percent chance for higher than normal precipitation. Much of May was extremely dry in my area of town, so the rain in early June was very welcome.
All you efficient and organized gardeners have likely got your yard in good order and will be concentrating on dealing with the weather, tending the vegetable patch, and keeping flowers dead headed to encourage more blooms. Insects will also be increasingly obvious, so scouting regularly will help. Each gardener has a tolerance limit for insects, but if there aren’t many pests it is to your advantage to simply pick them off and destroy them, rather than reach for that pesticide.
My long beans are doing well, but they are a magnet for black aphids. Consequently I spend a peaceful 10 minutes or so, maybe twice a day, searching them out and squishing them. I have found ladybug adults and larvae in among the aphids, so I take care to avoid killing the larvae, and leave them on the vines to continue eating the aphids. Adult ladybugs are also carnivores. Assassin bugs have found the bean plants, so I have their help in my endeavors, but sadly I spotted one with its mouthparts embedded in a ladybug.
There are definite downsides to using chemical pesticides as they can cause insects to develop resistance, thereby rendering a product less effective. If pests do become a big problem, be sure to identify them. (Contact the Extension Service for help, if needed.) Rotate appropriate pesticide products with different chemical actions, and follow the recommendations for homeowners on “using pesticides wisely.”
During rainy seasons, it’s important to monitor your lawn and watch for diseases and insects, both of which are encouraged by lush green growth. Adjust your irrigation system, to make sure you don’t over water, and follow best fertilization and watering practices. To green a lawn in summer, avoid nitrogenous fertilizers and use an iron-containing product (https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ep236). Remember, a thirsty lawn looks slightly blue, the grass blades become folded lengthwise, and footprint impressions stay visible. If it is your scheduled watering day, water before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. applying no more than one inch of water (https://www.sjrwmd.com/wateringrestrictions/).
Two good sources of current information are our local “A New Leaf – Yard & Garden” newsletter (https://tinyurl.com/2h6ppf8e) and “The Neighborhood Gardener” (https://tinyurl.com/ym838vz2), from the Master Gardener program at the University of Florida.
I know that peat is a component of most bagged potting soils and some British gardening experts always use peat-free products; however it hadn’t made a huge impact on me. What truly hit home was watching a TV piece featuring a professional gardener touring a protected peat bog in northern England. The scene was beautiful: low clumping plants in a meandering boggy substrate; images of greens, browns, and dusky purples, with a distant view of hazy blue hills. I learnt that the peat itself is many feet deep and has been laid down over hundreds or even thousands of years; in untouched bogs the process is still ongoing. Astonishingly, “Globally, peatlands store half a trillion metric tons of carbon, twice as much as the world’s forests.” (Professor Dave Goulson, of the University of Sussex, UK) I was surprised to find that the use of peat has been debated here for decades: https://tinyurl.com/ytdabj55. So why is the industry still using it for potting soil — “mining” it and releasing huge quantities of a potent greenhouse gas, when there are alternatives, like coconut coir? Well there have been some companies that have made the switch, so it’s worth searching out their products. If gardeners can avoid using peat-based potting media, then we will be doing ourselves and our planet a huge favor.
