Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
26.07.2023 - 18:01 / theprovince.com
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
It’s often frustrating when we work so hard to grow and care for our gardens only to have insects, disease and other pests create a number of serious problems. From spinach, swiss chard, and beet leaves spoiled by leaf miners to chewed foliage on brassicas, diseased, black-spotted roses and hydrangeas plagued by scale, we are facing a lot of trials out there.
We’re all very busy but the most important thing we can do to protect our plants is consistent preventive maintenance. Spotting a problem before it can ruin our plants is the highest priority. The single most important thing we can do is to look carefully at all the plants in our gardens at least twice a week. Catching the beginning of a problem early can not only save a plant from destruction but also make the solution much easier.
The adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is most applicable to our gardens.
The key is to watch for indications of challenges to come. As soon as we see a white cabbage butterfly moth flitting in our garden, we know very well all our brassicas are about to be chewed by their larvae. We all realize that organic or close-to-organic solutions are the best means of control, so we can cover the brassicas with Remay cloth or preventively spray each week with bacterial BTK (bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki). Either of these remedies will keep your beautiful broccoli and cauliflower clean.
A similar solution can be applied to the foliage of beets, spinach, and swiss chard. If you notice a bit of tunnelling in the leaves, or if you take a leaf and hold it
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
A fad in modern architecture and gardening or a necessity to bring back nature into industrialised densely built urban landscapes? Living green walls are becoming more and more popular, so we decided to explore the benefits, installation and maintenance process of these structures. Read on to find out how long they have been around, why so many buildings are having them, and how you can make one for your home.
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
One of my favorite things to do upcycle is tin cans and to make cool planters out of them ( like these popular gold crushed ones). I've been crushing tin cans again but this time to make a display outside my home that shows my house number too.
The tropical rain forests of South America hold a treasure when it comes to plants that are beautiful, exotic, and can make for great houseplants. Have a look at the most amazing South American Indoor Plants you can grow!
Evil Weevils do everything but ride motor bikes.
Sometimes we don’t see the pest, but we definitely see their work.
Holland Park has some Zen like features but fails my Zen test. The classic elements of a successful Zen are stone, sand or gravel, water, plants and space. Then there is a question of balance between yin and yang. Cramped or cluttered gardens inhibit the flow of spirit so space is potentially the key ingredient of a Zen garden.
Yes, you read that right – snowman hands. When I started teaching food safety practices to children I wondered how to teach them about proper hand washing. We all know how important it is to thoroughly wash our hands before preparing food, after touching raw meat and poultry or any other potentially contaminated surface. We can easily explain to children (and adults!) that singing happy birthday twice, while scrubbing hands, equals the prescribed 10 to 15 seconds that we should do while washing. However, how do you explain how much soap to use to create a good lather?? The answer: snowman hands! Use enough soap that your hands look like a snowman’s hands after rubbing them together! I have found great success with this tip while teaching children (and now my own children) to wash their hands properly. And guess what – it takes a good 10 to 15 seconds of scrubbing soapy hands together to create those snowman hands! Bonus to the singing of happy birthday while washing hands! So next time you are washing your hands, use enough soap to create snowman hands. This will help prevent the spread of food-borne illness (and those nasty cold and flu bugs too!).
Monitor cool-season crops for pests, such as aphids and various caterpillar species (cabbage loopers, cross-striped cabbageworm, and diamondback moth caterpillars). Properly identifying these pests will help in selecting control methods. For aphids, there are many natural predatory insects, such as lady beetle larvae, lacewings, syrphid flies, damsel bugs, and wasps. For more information on predatory insects, see HGIC 2820, Natural Enemies: Predators and Parasitoids. If additional control is needed for aphids, a commercially prepared insecticidal soap may be used. For more detailed information on insecticidal soap, see HGIC 2771, Insecticidal Soaps for Garden Pest Control. A naturally occurring bacterium, B.t. (Bacillus thuringiensis), may be used to control young caterpillars. As with all pesticides, read the label and apply at recommended rates and frequencies. Regardless of what pest you have, it is a good idea to maintain good sanitation in the garden. Always remember to remove any leftover plant debris at the end of the season. This will help reduce many over-wintering pest problems.
Garden Sprouts is a program I run at the South Carolina Botanical Garden that is designed for preschoolers and caregivers. This class takes place once a week for three months every spring and fall. The goal is to share age-appropriate nature-based activities with children, who are mostly three to five years old, but sometimes younger or older. Over time I have learned the caregivers also learn things they never knew, enjoy the activities immensely, and are able to connect more deeply to the natural world through this program. The structure of this hour-long program is three-fold, we begin inside with a book related to the theme of the day, a walk or outdoor activity, and finally a craft. In this blog, I would like to share some of the books, outdoor activities, and crafts we have done in this class.
In a year when many of our favorite sporting events have been postponed or even canceled, the garden marches on! As gardeners, we have our own backyard competitions each year, keeping mental notes on which varieties we will plant again or replace due to their performance on our ‘home court’. But choosing which varieties will be in our starting lineup each year can become a daunting task.