Now that Mother Nature has killed off all of the tender plants, it is really time to get cleaning in the garden. 

Some things I will actually leave alone. 

I leave Miss Kim alone in the fall since I want to see her lilacs in the spring.  I leave the hydrangeas alone for some winter interest and a place for the birds to sit on while there is snow on the ground.

There are still a few annuals that are clinging to life….

Some things I will leave for the spring. 

And then there are the things that I still need to do….

The snow did a great job of insulating the butterfly bush last year, but I think I will try some straw this year.  I have to put some down on my roses and cover my garlic, anyway. 

And, of course, there is the cleaning of the tools to consider.  I’ll save that for another blog post.

I found a fall gardening checklist online at The Iowa Gardener.  Click here to access it.  You can follow all, some, or none of the items, but it is there if you want it.

Have fun cleaning up!

Dig it!

Posted under Autumn

Woolly bear caterpillars, The Harvest Moon, The Hunter’s Moon (the one after the Harvest Moon) and driving around looking at the trees in all their fall glory.  All in a Fall days work…. normally.  This year hasn’t been the best for fall colors.  There are some very nice trees here and there and even a stand or two, but overall, the colors are a bit disappointing this year.

I think the main problem is the colors aren’t peaking at the same time.  The yellows were earlier and the reds are right now.. at least, until the rain and the wind strip the trees.

Each year is different on when the colors peak and even, sometimes, what the colors will be.  The color in leaves comes from cells called pigments.  Most of the trees in summer are green from the chlorophyll that hide the other pigments like the orange, yellow and brown we see in fall.  As the days become shorter, the production of chlorophyll slows and eventually stops.  This allows the hidden colors to start showing their beauty.  Some plants, like sumacs, hard maples, white oak, red oak and white ash don’t produce the reds and purples until the fall.

The timing, intensity and the quality of fall color, as we all know, isn’t the same each year, even on the same trees in your yard or neighborhood.  In a normal year, the color change occurs from the middle of September through the middle of October.  Temperature, moisture, rain, wind and the amount of sunlight all affect the quality of the fall color.  Clear days, cool night and dry conditions give the best color.  Heavy winds, rainfall and freezing temperatures, which can kill leaf tissue, can all cause the leaves to fall early. 

And all trees do not change color at the same time.  Walnuts turn yellow in the fall and are one of the first trees to drop all of it’s leaves.  That can occur before many other trees.  The white oak has subdued red color of the leaves that turn brown and may stay on the tree until the new leaves start to grow in the spring.  Ash trees fall after the walnut but before oaks and maples.

Of course, there are more than trees to show color for the fall.  We managed to plant a few of them in our yard.

 If you didn’t get around to seeing all the colors that Mother Nature had to offer this year, or you missed them, Mark has been putting pictures on Schnack’s blog  or click here for just the fall photos that viewers have sent in.

Dig it!

Posted under Autumn

When I was growing up near Cosgrove, west of Iowa City, I would go to my neighbor’s house after school.  Mid Davin was an older lady who made noodles and cookies.  I would get her mail on my way past the box and come visit with Mid for the afternoon.  I remember watching a lot of Jeopardy and other afternoon game shows.  When the news came on, I went back to my house and did my homework.  I figured out years later that my Mom and Mid’s kids had probably created this arrangement to provide Mid with some company each day and to help keep me from killing my sister and brother.  One of the things I got out of it, other than some great memories of the cookie and fresh noodle smells, was how messy boxelder bugs are. 

Mid didn’t complain too much about them getting in the house, but she hated all the spots they left on her windows.  I don’t think I ever helped her clean the windows because she always got to them before I got out of school! 

Boxelder bugs are pretty common in Iowa and are most abundant after summers where May is very warm and July is very dry.  I don’t think we have to worry about that this year.  However, there can still be problems even in years when a widespread “outbreak” of Boxelder bugs doesn’t occur.

Most of the warm parts of the year you probably won’t see too many.  I have seen a few on my flowers and bushes in the garden, but they haven’t ”attacked” the house yet.  They live, feed and reporduce on trees, shrubs and other plants which include boxelders (surprise, surprise), maples and ashes. 

Boxelder bugs feed on the sap from the host plants but don’t cause any significant damage.  They become a nuisance in the fall when they leave their plant homes to find a warm spot for the winter.  You will know when this happens when you see them congregating on the warm side of the houses… and on the windows leaving spots from their feet! 

They move through cracks in the foundation and siding, gaps along the windows and doors and other small openings.  While in the walls or attics they are inactive as long as they are cold.  If they get warmed by heat from the furnace or the sun they become active during the winter and that’s when they crawl into the rooms where you can see them.  And probably leave spots on your walls.

There is no good way to figure out when and where a problem will be until it starts.  By then it is probably too late for treatment.  Boxelder bugs can be controlled on the trees in the mid summer with insecticides (labeled for boxelder bug control) but it will probably not work well.  Spraying large trees is difficult and is usually impractical.

Same as with the Asian Lady Beetle, the best way to keep Boxelder bugs out of your house is to seal all possible entry sites.  You can spray to reduce the number outside to limit the number that will get inside.  You can use a lawn and garden insecticide or soapy water spray (which is 5 Tablespoons of liquid detergent to a gallon of water) on masses of bugs on and along the foundation in the fall.  You may have to repeat the applications especially when you use the soapy water spray.

There is no easy way to get rid of Boxelder bugs that are already inside the house.  they are usually not killed by the household aerosol inseciticides and most are not of much benefit.  The best way to control bugs already in the house to is vacuum, sweep or pick them up and discard them.  Sounds familiar!

So far they haven’t made it into our house yet, but I’ll have to keep an eye on the windows and make sure the boxelder doesn’t mess them up!

Dig it!

Posted under Autumn, Pests

Ahhh.  Fall… when the tomato plants turn brown but still try to put out a couple of fruits, the heat and humidity drop (usually!), and the Asian Lady Beetles return to our consciousness.

What we know as the Asian Beetle is the multicolored Asian lady beetle or Harmonia axyridis.  It isn’t clear where the Asian lady beetle originated, but they arrived by accident in ports like New Orleans in the late 1980s and have been crawling and flying themselves to all corners of the country. 

Asian lady beetles are beneficial insects by eating other pests in trees during the summer and in fields and gardens during the fall.  They eat aphids and that is worth keeping them around for me.  However, our problem with them is during the cold season when they enter our houses. 

In their natural habitat, Asian lady beetles overwinter in large congregations in the cracks and crevices on cliff faces.  Since we don’t have a large number of cliffs in the Iowa, the side of a house looks just as good to the beetle.  They fly to sunny, exposed surfaces as they get ready to hibernate through the winter. They will crawl around and find any sort of crevice and often end up crawling into our homes.  This makes them accidental invaders.  They do not feed or reproduce indoors and they cannot attack the house structure, furniture or fabrics.  They don’t sting or carry diseases, but they can pinch, may leave a slimy smear and they have an odor when squished.  They are just downright annoying.

Asian lady beetles enjoy eating aphids and Soybean aphids are a pose of the, wouldn’t you know it, soybean.  I know everyone thinks that now that the beans are being harvested they will be flocking to your home.  And some of them may, but the timing of the beetle flight varies.  It is usually from mid-September through October, but depends mainly on the day length and the weather.  The first warm day after the first fall frost will find those beetles trying to find their winter spots.  So far, it looks like the frost is a little ways away this year.

So how do you keep them out of your house.  Well, you need to seal exterior gaps and cracks around windows, doors, eaves, roofs, siding and other points of access before the beetles appear.  Sounds simple, right?  Probably not since it is time consuming, impractical and usually not 100% effective.  For large infestations you can try spraying pyrethroid insecticides such as permethrin or esfenvalerate to the outside of buildings when the beetles appear to help prevent them from getting in.  Indoor insecticides usually don’t work well because it is impossible to reach all of the lady beetles that are hidden in the walls.  The best thing to do is vacuum or sweep them up and discard if they are already in the house.  And for long-term relief, plant trees that will grow to shade the south and west sides of the house.   That way you don’t have to drag the vacuum out each time you see one!

Dig it!

Posted under Autumn, Pests

What have you seen lately?

Dig it!

Posted under Autumn, Photos

As much as I hate to admit it, summer is coming to an end.  That means I have to change some of my habits in the garden.  That includes deadheading, or really, to stop deadheading. 

When you deadhead a plant (cutting off the spent flowers), the plant will start to put out new shoots.  It is great for making basil and coleus more bushy or making any plant look cleaner.  However, at some point the plant has to get ready for winter.  If you keep deadheading, it will keep putting out new shoots which will be vulnerable to our freezing winter temperatures.

About now is when you need to stop deadheading.  I did one last run through on my roses, but that will be it for the year. 

The flowers that are on the roses will set hips (the rose seed heads) and the plant will know it is time to start shutting down for winter. 

Another benefit to leaving some of the rose hips is that it is a source of food for some birds in the winter.  Or even for that wayward robin that didn’t leave or came back waaay too early.

You can still prune the rose bush back for another week or so, but by the end of September, leave it alone.  It is hard enough for roses to get through our harsh winters, it needs all the help it can get to be ready when it hits.  You don’t have to protect it by putting cones on it or burying it, but don’t force any new growth.  That will give you a better chance of seeing those beauties again next spring.  I’ll post more information later on how to winterize your roses…  You won’t have to do that until November, so you have a little more time to enjoy the blooms.

Oh, and when I was pruning the miniature chinese rose bush that I got last year for a dollar, I realized I have a very special bush.  It has both pink and white flowers on it!

The bulk of the plant is pink (with a nice fragrance), but there are a couple of branches with white on them.  Must be part of the graft.  And, it is almost as large as my Knock Out bush!

Dig it!

Posted under Autumn, Fall Prep