Happy Garden - October 23, 2008

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Thanks for reading,

Susan

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Photos:

• Use Dried Greenery In Your Fall/Winter Displays

Tips and Articles:

• Plums Falling Before They Are Ripe
• Tips For Raking Up Fallen Leaves
• Make Sauce With Your Garden Tomatoes
• Link: Free Trees And Plants
• Plant Grass Seed after the Snow Flies
• Controlling Ant Central
• Buy Mulch Now For Next Year
• Eat A Leaf Of Poison Ivy To Prevent Reactions
• Container Ideas From Every Room in Your House
• Cornmeal For Ants

New Requests:

• Thrifty Container Gardening
• What Is This Plant?
• Organic Weed Control For Strawberries
• Clusters Of Leaves On Esparanza Bushes
• Magnolia Trees Seedlings
• Slugs Inside My House
• Clematis Won't Bloom

Crafting for Fun and Money!

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Use Dried Greenery In Your Fall/Winter Displays

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Plums Falling Before They Are Ripe

Question:

Why do the plums fall off the tree every year before they are ripe. I do everything I was told to do but nothing helps. Opening it, spraying it, etc., I think I'll cut it this fall, unfortunately.

Hardiness Zone: 5a

Mike from Mercier Qc., Canada

Answer:

Mike,

Don't give up yet. With a little detective work, you can figure this out. There are many possible answers to your question, so it's up to you to try to decide which of the following factors apply best to your situation:

• Depending on what kind of Plum tree you have, fruit drop can be a normal biological occurrence. This self-thinning habit is sometimes referred to "June drop" and is how a tree gets rid of excess fruit when it produces more than it can sustain. Self-thinning is most common in young trees. Thinning some of the tree's fruit mechanically (removing some of them by hand as the fruit starts developing) can help prevent this.

• Cold temperatures. How has your weather been? Spring frosts can cause developing fruits to drop off prematurely. Spraying the fruits with water right before an impending frost can help prevent damage.

• Early fruit drop can be due to a nutrient deficiency in your soil. Contact your country extension office to find out how to have your soil tested.

• Inadequate irrigation. A lack of water at critical times during fruit development can also cause premature fruit to drop. Try to keep the soil around your trees consistently moist (not waterlogged). Adding mulch to the base of your trees will help conserve water and prevent big swings in soil temperature.

• Inadequate sunlight. Do your trees get plenty of sun? A lack of sun causes poor fruit development. As a result, even a mild breeze can come along and cause the fruit to be sloughed from the tree.

• Disease. Are the fruits that fall misshapen or are they of a normal size and color? Do you see signs of insect damage like crescent-shaped scars, or small holes on the fruit? This could be a sign of plum curculio, oriental fruit moth, or other insect damage.

Here are a few resources to help you determine exactly what the problem is.

• http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pp/extension/tfabp/blknstf.shtml
• http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/pestnote/2006/plumpox.pdf
• http://www.canr.msu.edu/vanburen/plumcurc.htm

Good luck!

Ellen

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Tips For Raking Up Fallen Leaves
By Ellen Brown

Part of keeping your lawn and garden healthy means that most of the accumulated debris, including fallen leaves, should be removed in the fall. Raking is still the most environmentally friendly option for removing fallen leaves, and the best way to get some exercise (the average person burns approximately 283 calories per hour raking leaves). Rakes are cheap, quiet, and they don't contribute to global warming. Here are some tips for making raking the lawn easier and more enjoyable.

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Make Sauce With Your Garden Tomatoes

What to do with all those garden tomatoes? I washed a big bowl of them, sliced them open, took out the seeds and pulp, cut them into any old size (about eight pieces per tomato) and put them in the slow cooker (on low) before I went to bed. Stirred them in the morning and around noon. By dinner time they were thick and sweet. I used them in a homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner and my children actually said they liked it better than the store bought sauce.

I learned to cut and clean the tomatoes this way for oven-drying, but this is much easier. I'm guessing that the skins are good roughage, and you really don't notice them in the sauce.

By Lindainthekitchen from Weirton, WV

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Link: Free Trees And Plants

I found a website that has free plants:

• http://freetreesandplants.com/

I haven't read all of the info but from what I have read you pay for shipping and handling. They also have gift certificates. These folks employ handicapped people.

Source: Erin Huffstetler - About.com Frugal Living Guide

By Alice from Big Lake Ranch, B.C., Canada

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Plant Grass Seed after the Snow Flies

I noticed that several gardening centers around here marked their grass seed to 50% or more off. This is a good time to buy it on sale. However if you live in a part of the country that gets snow, don't plant it yet. Wait until it starts snowing, then throw down your seed. The snow protects it from the birds eating it, and as the snow later melts off. The weight of the snow and the movement of the melting will cause the seed to be pulled into the ground. In the spring you will have a nice patch of new grass coming up.

Source: Self experience.

By April from NW Missouri

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Controlling Ant Central

We live in an area that is ANT CENTRAL. The house had been invaded time after time and never just a few but armies of them. The problem was growing! I finally did have a pest company begin a regular schedule of spraying but it has taken about two years to actually get them under control. They had built a thriving metropolis under the cement pad the house was built upon. They could move throughout the house through the walls by coming up through the cracks in the cement pad. Along with the spraying, the pest company also put down granules and a syringe filled with a clear gel that ants love, then take it back to the nest thus killing vast numbers of ants.

As I said, it has taken 2 years to get control and I probably can't risk stopping pest service. At least the home invasions have stopped. If you're not fighting an army, you might try peppermint oil mixed with some water and Murphy's Oil soap to spray along your outside foundation.

By Mary from Victorville,CA

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Buy Mulch Now For Next Year

If you garden, buy mulch now! All the garden centers and other stores that sell mulch in bulk bags, have them on super sale right now. I just bought 5 bags (1.5 cubic feet each) of mulch for only $5! It's usually $2.79 a bag, so this is close to be only a third of retail. Yay, me!

By Polly from Cedar Springs, MI

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Eat A Leaf Of Poison Ivy To Prevent Reactions

I must share something that has helped me tremendously. An elderly neighbor told me how to get rid of poison ivy, of which I had known the horrors of. She said to me, the old timers would pick a leaf of the plant each spring and eat it. I now pick a small leaf and eat it each spring, and I can pick wild blackberries with my hands all in the poison ivy and never have a reaction. Most folks are scared of this when I tell them, but blessed be my neighbor, it works for me.

By Rexe from Junction City, Arkansas

Editor's Note: Warning! Eating poison ivy can be very dangerous and can cause shock and severe breathing problems. Advice similar to Rexe's can be found all over the internet and in some cases, this may be an effective way to increase your immunity to poison ivy. But I would strongly recommend against trying this approach.

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Container Ideas From Every Room in Your House
By Ellen Brown

Plants will grow in just about anything given the proper soil, water and light conditions. If you're looking for some inexpensive container ideas, grab a pencil and some paper and take a walk around the house for a few inspirational ideas.

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Cornmeal For Ants

To get rid of any kind of ants use cornmeal, regular cornmeal. Place on the ant mound or in a lid in their path and within a week there will be no more ants.

Source: Passed down from my grandmother.

By Vickie from Zebulon, NC

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Thrifty Container Gardening

I am looking for a thrifty way to container garden my vegetables this year. Any ideas?

Jennifer

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What Is This Plant?

Can anyone help identify the name of this plant? It's a hanging pot plant, that I am learning blooms in the fall. I purchased it this past spring, and totally forgot what kind of plant the seller said that it was. I would really like to be able to look it up online to see how to take care of it in fall and winter, but don't know the name of it or what family it's from. I can send a closer picture if requested. Please help, and thank you in advance.

Hardiness Zone: 8a


Deone from Atlanta, GA

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Organic Weed Control For Strawberries

I am looking for a pet friendly weed control for strawberry weeds in my back yard. I have dogs and I am afraid to use chemicals because of the dogs. Does anyone know of an organic solution to keep strawberries under control?

Michael from St. Louis, MO

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Clusters Of Leaves On Esparanza Bushes

I have Esperanza bushes that have topknots at the very top of each limb. These clusters have very small leaves growing everywhere that extend out of the clusters. Is this normal? They have been in the ground now 3 years, this is the first time I have seen them like this. In the Spring they were loaded down with yellow flowers, and then they started this. Can you tell me if this is normal?

Reynae

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Magnolia Trees Seedlings

I am new at growing magnolia trees. I harvested seeds from my son's southern magnolia last year and planted them, I have around 100 seedlings. My question is about when to fertilize my seedling, and if i should leave them in a cold frame or bring them in for the winter. They were planted in small pots to start, then transplanted in to larger pots. I have some that are over a year old, some 9 months, some 6 months old. Pots range from 1 gallon pot to 4.5 . I also have 3 that came up first and are not anything like a magnolia tree. I have read that some seeds will produce freaks, well i have three. They are very different. My daughter calls them Magnolia Palm's. They are very different from the other seedlings, as seen in the picture I sent. The large one is the freak.

Hardiness Zone: 7a

PWILLOW3 from Midwest City, OK

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Slugs Inside My House

We have been finding slugs in the sitting room by the settee and by the fire in the morning. We can't find out where they're coming from. We have recently put wooden flooring down. Where could they be coming in from? Please help.

Chris

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Clematis Won't Bloom

Why didn't my clematis bloom?

Hardiness Zone: 5a

Sandy from Milwaukee, WI

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Crafting for Fun and Money!

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Click Here: http://www.thriftyfun.com/post_craft.ldml