August Gardening Advice for Manchester – 2015
by Jennifer Fairfield
Editor’s Note: Manchester resident, Jennifer Fairfield, owns and operates the Garden Mill in Chelsea, serves on the Manchester Community Garden Committee, and volunteers with the school gardens at Klager and the MECC.
August is generally the month we find ourselves dealing with a few issues in our yards and gardens – insects, diseases and water (or the lack thereof). Insects are really starting to show up in large numbers, including Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, Mexican bean beetles, squash bugs and grasshoppers.
But there are lots of good insects hanging out in our gardens these days, too. Dragonflies and damselflies, tachinid flies, parasitic wasps, and many others are busy helping out. And we can’t forget the bees and butterflies pollinating our gardens! Unfortunately, it’s easy to forget all of them when all we can see is the ones doing their best to destroy everything we like.
Japanese Beetle damage
My nemesis right now is Japanese beetles, and from what I hear from customers, I’m not alone. They have been helping themselves to my beans and basil. So my morning routine is to get up, go out to the garden and knock them off the plants into a bucket of soapy water before heading to the store. There aren’t a lot of other really effective organic options, and I am not interested in spraying my vegetable garden with lots of synthetic chemicals, so the soapy water is going to have to do the trick.
There are a number of reasons not to just let Japanese beetles have their way with your plants, in part because once you have a few of them, they send out a signal to all their buddies (not like the “bat signal” the commissioner sent out to Batman, but actually pheromones). They apparently don’t like to dine alone. Favorite plants of Japanese beetles include roses, grapes, Virginia creeper, crabapple, apple, Norway maple, American linden, beans, basil and raspberries.
Another reason to not tolerate these insects is that the females will lay their eggs in your lawn, and in a little while, you will have grubs chewing up the roots of your grass. The more beetles that survive to lay eggs, the more grubs you will have, and the more damage those grubs will do to your lawn. One thing that August’s usual dry weather is good for is that dry soil makes it hard for the female to lay her eggs. So, consider not watering your lawn while the beetles are active. Those traps people put all over their yards? Don’t waste your money. All they really do is bring more of the beetles to your yard, and you can’t possibly hope that the traps catch them all.
While we are sort of on the topic of lawns, with the reduction in rain that August brings, lawns need a little different care than they needed when we were getting rain constantly. Your lawn is not going to grow as quickly, so it doesn’t need to be mowed as frequently. Also, because there is not as much water available to it, cutting a little higher is even more important, as the higher grass will help shade the roots and keep moisture in.
I know it seems impossible that we should need to be worried about our gardens drying out after all the rain we got in June and early July, but with the lack of rain typical of August, keeping things watered is likely to be one of our biggest challenges this month. This goes for containers even more than in-ground gardens. All this sunshine dries things out quickly, so be sure to provide water to your containers regularly, and don’t forget to fertilize too. When you are watering containers regularly, you can be flushing out fertilizer, so you should be adding it back in to keep your plants growing and producing.
Many diseases got a running start in our gardens this year because of the cool, wet weather we had all the way into July. The warmer weather we’ve been experiencing is helpful in slowing down their progression, for the most part, but if you have signs of disease, don’t get complacent just because it is warmer and isn’t raining every day. I have seen signs of problems in my tomatoes and cucumbers, so have picked up my spraying regimen and am alternating a copper spray (Espoma Garden Fungicide) with the fungicide I have been using (Serenade Garden Disease Control). This is the regimen recommended by the Missouri Botanical Gardens for dealing with both fungal and bacterial diseases, which can be hard to distinguish between, in their guide to tomato problems. It is my hope that I can keep the diseases at bay long enough to harvest lots of great produce.
In addition to spraying, removing any leaves, stems and fruit showing signs of disease as soon as possible will help slow down the progression of the disease. Keeping insects under control is also helpful, as they carry diseases from plant to plant as they search for the best-tasting meal.
The best part of August is that we get to harvest so much great stuff to eat from our gardens! I’m picking beans every day and zucchini about every-other day. The kale is going crazy, peppers are really starting to come in, and we’ve got lots of basil and dill. My tomatoes are a little later than usual because I was late getting them in the ground, but they are working on ripening fruit – I can’t wait! I’ve also begun harvesting garlic, which are looking great. I think all the rain may have helped them get really big this year, which is fabulous!
To extend your harvest, there are a number of things you can plant now for harvest before frost sets in. August is a great time to plant beets, radishes, lettuces, spinach, Swiss chard, kale, and peas for harvest into the early fall. Check your seed packet for the “days to maturity” to determine how late you can plant and still harvest before frost sets in. To figure out your safe planting timeframe, just count backwards from your average first date of frost (usually around October 1st for our area, but Dave’s Garden has more detailed information on frost dates).
A lack of water and higher temperatures are hard on our feathered friends, so be sure to keep your bird baths cleaned and filled. If you are feeding hummingbirds (if not, why not – they are so fun to watch!), keep their feeders cleaned out and filled weekly.
If you are looking for something for the whole family to do this month, I highly recommend checking out the Birds, Blooms and Butterflies Festival at Dahlem Center in Jackson on the 15th.
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