TheGardenLady Loves Readers’ Comments

Comments by miss miah

TheGardenLady does not really like her blog to be about her personal thoughts unless they pertain to something that relates to an issue she is writing about. The premise of the blog is to discuss or help people with gardening issues, ideas and suggestions. Also, there is the hope that readers will share in these discussions.

But please allow TheGardenLady to get personal when she writes how much she loves when people write in comments.

I enjoyed hearing from  the person who wrote about the importance of the honeybee and how long they have lived in this country.

The honeybee history is very much the history of the first settlers to the US.  See here.

I agree on the importance of the honeybee. Every day I love to examine the pollinators on the plants in my garden hoping to find healthy honey bees returning. Today I was so happy to find two honey bees happily gathering the nectar and pollen.

Mostly I see other pollinators that I encourage and hope that gardeners will encourage to their gardens. When we make our garden environments good, clean and safe all the pollinators will be healthy and do their jobs. This GardenLady hopes that honeybees will make a full recovery. There is no question that we need them and miss them.

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Things To Do When Gardening in July

Colorado potato beetle larvae dining on nightshade leaves by imarsman

July is the time to work in the garden -  so get up early before the sun gets brutal.  A few of the jobs to be done in July are:

Water plants: If you live in an area that is having a drought, you will have to water. With the heat of summer and the drought,depending on your plants, many will need to be watered frequently. How to water correctly is often misunderstood. A good site for information on proper watering is this.  And because water is becoming more and more of a rare commodity, with a drought might come prohibitions from your township on using it outdoors on your grounds. So you will have to check with your local government to see if watering outdoors is being allowed.

In times when water is rationed you might want to use what is called gray water to keep the plants alive. Gray water is the water used in your house for washing, etc. – all but toilet water. The proper usage of gray water is explained here.

It is best to water before the sun comes up. It is best to soak the soil around the roots of the plants rather than to spray water over the tops of the plants. First, it saves water. Less water evaporates when you soak the root area. And for some plants, especially roses, watering the leaves can cause fungal problems like black spot – if the plants are susceptible to the disease.   When you water it is best to soak the plants deeply so that the roots stay down in the soil. Shallow watering can cause roots to more upwards.  See here.
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How To Deal With Squirrels In The Garden

Squirrel eating my tomatoes…by CaitieBeth

TheGardenLady received this question from Jim.

After all the work of setting up a garden and caring for it, the squirrels get to the tomatoes before we can enjoy them.  They just nibble on part of the tomato as it begins to ripen but enough to prevent us from eating it. It is very discouraging. Do you have any ideas that could help me?

As cute as some people think they are, squirrels are a big nuisance in the garden.

There are both dry and liquid products on the market that are supposed to stop squirrels from eating your tomatoes and they are organic so they should be safe to use. These products are supposed to be effective because the squirrel has a good sense of smell. It is recommended that the product should be reapplied after a heavy rain. Check your hardware store to see what they sell.

Two brand names are: Squirrel Stopper (see here) and the other is Shake Away (see here). This GardenLady has not used these products. If you use these products, take care when applying because they may have hot pepper as part of the ingredients so you have to be sure it doesn’t get into your eyes or on your skin- gloves and goggles are recommended when applying.

Next year, if possible, make a raised bed with screening that squirrels cannot enter. TheGardenLady’s husband had made a raised bed surrounded by screening to prevent animals from getting her tomatoes. On the ground, under the soil where the plants were we put screens – we used old window screens – so that no animal could burrow in through the bottom but rain could go through. The sides and the top also had screening made of the smallest holed chicken wire that was available in the hardware store. If you get screening that has too large holes, rabbits and squirrels can get in. The screens were attached to frames that had hooks so that the frames could be removed in order to plant, weed and harvest. Watering is easy through the chicken wire.

My Tomato Garden covered with chicken netting to protect from squirrels by k2marsh

TheGardenLady’s Love of Poppies

Papaver nudicaule (Iceland Poppy) by Luigi FDV

TheGardenLady hopes to write about each type of plant on her property. To start off the list, I would like to talk about the Iceland poppiesPapaver nudicaule.

I love poppies and have tried, unsuccessfully, to raise them for years. The major reason, I believe, I have not had success is because my property is mostly shaded. I may be wrong because a friend had poppies along the back of her house for years and I usually visited them when there was shade.  I just do not know the amount of sun she had in this location. If she had at least 6 hours of sun, then they would thrive. Poppies need a lot of sun.

My friend very generously gave me poppy plants.  I believe they were the oriental ones, but they always, sadly, left my garden after one year of bloom and never returned the second year. But I am persistent and try planting plants in different sites on my property in the hopes that one spot will make the poppies happy enough to return the following year. Mostly I have planted the Iceland poppies because I love orange and yellow in the garden. None has ever reseeded.

This year once again I planted Iceland poppies in three different sunny spots. This year I also planted seeds of the California poppyEschscholzia Californica. A neighbor has them and they reseed and bloom for him in the same spot every year. I hope some of the California poppies will take- I forgot where I planted them, so I am hoping one day as I inspect my garden some California poppies will appear to say, “We’re here.”

As I said, I had never been lucky enough for my poppies to reseed. But this year I saw a strange plant in one flower bed. To pull or not to pull was the question. It was such an unusual looking “weed” that l left it thinking that it didn’t look too difficult to pull if it later turned out to be an obnoxious weed. Then a second “weed” started growing across the walk from the first. The first “weed” kept growing and growing. I kept asking gardener friends if they could identify the plant. Most thought it looked like lettuce. So to really ID the plant, I needed the flower. The second plant grew much more slowly. Then, voila, one day I saw the buds on the first plant. They were the give away. Finally, after many years of trying, I had an Iceland Poppy that had self seeded. Now almost every day my “weed” produces a pink flower for me.

I read that pink is the recessive Iceland Poppy color. I had never planted a pink poppy. It is very exciting for me to see this 3 ft. tall poppy with its ethereal pink flower.  The second plant is just showing its first bud. I will be curious to see what color it is. And the three other Iceland poppies that I planted this year are orange and yellow.   Iceland Poppies are native to the northern parts of North America and Asia. They are said to like poor gravelly soil but the plants that self seeded for me are in an area richly mulched with aged horse manure.

I found some on-line sites that sell poppy seeds.  See here.  I plan on ordering the blue Meconopsis poppy next year.  See here.