What Is That Fuzzy Red and Black Ant?

As the year passes, and as each new season settles upon us, we are blessed with abundant and various seasonal crops and produce. While in most mainstream grocery stores, we can now find our favorite foods all year round; however, many prefer to eat what is being grown specifically in that season. Here in South Carolina, entities such as Certified SC Grown is just one example of an organization that is working to bridge the gap between field and plate, making finding local, seasonal fruits and vegetables more attainable.

The row on the left has succumbed to bacterial wilt. In the row on the right are grafted plants that had bacterial wilt resistance.

One of my favorite August gardening joys is sowing crimson red clover (Trifolium incarnatum) seeds up and down my driveway. I look forward to the bright crimson red flower show in the spring.

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Any day now, temperatures should drop, and we will begin what I believe to be the best season in South Carolina – the Fall! This is not just a football-induced admiration. Fall is a great time to be outdoors and on the water. It’s also our best season to appreciate the culinary treasures of our estuaries – shrimp and oysters!

As winter gives way to spring, gardeners get that familiar itch to get outside and begin preparing for the coming growing season. With so many tasks to do, it is easy for well-intentioned gardeners to succumb to the marketing of fertilizer products that contain pre-emergent herbicides. Why not combine the two jobs of fertilizing the lawn and applying pre-emergent herbicide to control those pesky summer weeds in one fell swoop?! As is often said, ‘If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’ Such is the case for pre-emergent herbicide and fertilizer combination products.

As people are spending more time around their homes during the concerns of COVID-19, they may be more likely to notice small ants crawling in and around their houses. Now is the perfect time to do something about it.

Warm summer temperatures are here, and sweet South Carolina watermelons will be ripe for harvest soon. If you are looking for a refreshing summer dessert that’s easy to make and full of flavor, then lime and mint infused watermelon sorbet is the recipe for you. Enjoy!

Clemson University’s Cooperative Extension Service is proud to offer a brand new program to the citizens of South Carolina! Many landscape professionals, whether in the private industry, grounds-maintenance, or employed by government agencies, are in constant need of good training resources for themselves and their employees. Many homeowners also want to know that their landscape operators/providers have the skill set necessary to deliver consistent, high-quality service.

Rob Last reports, “Strawberry crops are developing well; however, we are seeing gray mold phomopsis blight in some crops.  Sanitation can really help prevent botrytis from spreading as we move forward when allied to fungicide applications. Keep scouting for spider mites as there are active populations in some crops. Now is a great time of year to think about the maintenance of equipment for bed formation, cultivation for spring crops, and most important product application.”

Lily of the Nile or agapanthus (Agapanthus africanus and hybrids with this species) is a blue-flowered perennial that grows from a rhizome (fleshy root). Each rhizome sends up several shoots. Rhizomes also reproduce, so over time, a one-gallon plant of a vigorous cultivar like ‘Blue Storm’ will make a clump 2.5 feet wide. One of my large-leaved, unnamed cultivars has spread 3.5 feet in all directions.

The recent news that all Pyrus calleryana cultivars – the most common of which is the Bradford pear – and several Elaeagnus species have been added to the “do not sell” list in South Carolina has generated a lot of buzz and a lot of questions from homeowners. We’ll try to answer some of those questions in this blog post.