Attack of the Box Elder Bugs by Carol King

It’s the time of year when certain creatures are looking for a winter home. And your house, dear gardener is probably a nice snug choice for many of them. Everything from field mice to spiders, crickets, and lady bugs are hunting for a spot to over winter.
If you are like me, you can share your home with a few spiders; a cricket might be welcomed if they wouldn’t sing, but no to mice, and definitely no to box elder bugs. The box elder bug is arguably the biggest insect nuisance we get complaints about. They will cover the outside of homes, patios, concrete walls, sheds, on the south and west sides where the sun shines all through fall and winter. If you have a box elder bug problem, you have thousands of them. Their goal is to get inside your house and spend the winter. They come in cracks, through vents, crevices, gaps in windows and doors. Once inside, they crawl and fly about your home; accumulating around light fixtures and making an extreme nuisance of themselves. While they don’t bite or damage anything, they can spot your curtains and walls, and can leave a stain and stink if you smash ‘em!
Once spring comes, these critters leave your house and find the nearest female box elder tree and lay eggs in the cracks in the bark; and it starts all over again. The young insect loves to eat the leaves of the box elder tree.
If you have a box elder bug problem, you have a female box elder tree nearby. To completely get rid of the problem, tree removal may be an option, depending on the extent of the invasions.
Control is not simple but here are a few tips:
• Insect proof your home by caulking, screening, sealing cracks, etc.
• Check all screens and storm doors and see that they fit snuggly.
• Clean up yard clutter as the bugs will use stored firewood, stacks of lumber, as shelter
• Pour boiling water on small masses of bugs. Do not scald yourself!
• Spray the bugs with a mild liquid soap solution; be careful as may cause vegetation damage.
• Suck them up with a vacuum cleaner, throw bag away as they will stink.
• Spray with household insecticide.
The bad news is, all these measures will only provide temporary relief. They will continue to try to come in on warm days in the fall and winter and could hang around until May.

Here's more:

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05522.html

Photo courtesy of Bruce Marlin www.cirrusimage.com

Poinsettia Hideout by Carol King

If you are one of "those" gardeners who could not bear to throw away your poinsettia or Christmas cactus last year; and you are entertaining the notion of these plants flowering in time for the holiday season, you need to take certain steps now. My assumption is that you took proper care of the plant during the spring and summer and it is looking pretty fine right now.
To force the poinsettia into bloom*, give it 14 hours of complete, uninterrupted darkness every night for six weeks, beginning in early October. Your poinsettia must be kept completely, completely dark from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. Put a bag or a box over it and put it in a closet that you will not open. Start this treatment right now and plan on continuing until about December 15. Once the color starts to show, continue darkness until the bracts are almost fully opened. Temperatures should be no less than 55°F at night, but not more than 70°F. During the day give the poinsettia as much sunlight as possible. Of course, you will continue to water regularly and very lightly fertilize the plant. Don’t forget to bring the plant back into the light every morning.
Do the exact same thing with Christmas cactus except they need to be cool at night; 50 degrees is ideal; perhaps a dark garage and again no light at all.

Good luck, dear gardener, I hope you have blooms galore. As for me, I am not one of "those" gardeners. I love the feeling of purging that comes from throwing the dusty old plants away. I am always ready for the holidays to end and having these plants sitting around depresses me. I will purchase a new lush plant at the garden center in December, enjoy it through the holidays and take great pleasure in heaving it into the compost heap on January 1!
*The red, yellow, or pink on the poinsettia plant is not really a bloom as such. It is a bract or leaf that changes color with the introduction of darkness. The flower is the little bitty yellow in the center of the bract.

Here's all you'll need to know:
Poinsettias Fact Sheet
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/Garden/07412.html

September Sunrise at Belmar Park by Carol King

Kendrick Lake Gardens by Carol King

Jefferson County Colorado Master Gardeners were treated to a visit at the Gardens at Kendrick Lake Park this week. We were given a VIP tour by Greg Foreman, Urban Parks Specialist for the City of Lakewood and two of his top aides. Located on Jewell just west of Garrison, Kendrick Lake Park is a veritable botanic garden for drought-tolerant plants. We saw more than 350 flowers, shrubs, ground covers, trees, and roses. In 2001, Greg and his staff set out to create the new western garden, using flora that makes sense in Colorado. Greg is a man on a mission: showcasing just what wonderful gardens we can create with plants appropriate to six habitat areas that encompass Colorado: plains, foothills, upper Sonoran, montane, and alpine. The one acre garden features six beds of beautiful native and non-native plants that will grow in these life zones. Many plants are from other dry areas on the planet like Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. There are also flowers native to Texas, California, Utah and others. The Rocky Mountain region has become known for horticultural innovation of drought-tolerant species thanks in large part to people like Greg.
These gardens prove that if we choose the right plants, properly prepare the soil (this garden uses fine gravel called slurry, mixed half and half with garden topsoil) and water correctly, we can have lovely gardens that are much more appropriate to the western landscape. Mulching for moisture control is a large part of the process. This magnificent garden demonstrates several types of mulch: rock, bark, and my favorite, buffalo grass. These plantings need very little water. They water less than once a week during the hottest months and none in the fall and winter. Visits to this garden will, dear gardener, encourage even the most resistant of you to try some new kinds of plantings and perhaps join the anti-lawn, native, or xeriscape plant movements.
Incidentally, the Urban Parks Division maintains all the parks within Lakewood. It also cares for plantings in the 1,550 acres of parks, on 242 miles of street medians, all the public buildings and right of ways in the City. And all with only 34 staff members (plus some seasonal help)! Once you have visited the Kendrick Lake gardens, I am sure you will see Greg Foreman’s innovative, thoughtful hand in many public garden areas throughout Lakewood. We are fortunate to have this talented man with his dedicated staff working to make our City most beautiful. (and water wise!).

*“The word "Xeriscape," was coined by the Denver Water Department in 1981 to help make water conserving landscaping an easily recognized concept. The word is a combination of "landscape" and the Greek word "xeros," which means dry.”* It is in fact a trademarked word owned by them. Xeriscape does not mean “zeroscape”. or no water, it means wise water use. A reduction of 60% of water use is quite common when using xeriscaping principles.

* From the Colorado WaterWise Council website: www.xeriscape.org.

Kendrick Lake Gardens September 2008

XERISCAPE AND NATIVE PLANTING INFORMATION

Here's some information about xeriscape and water wise gardening.

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• Principles of Xeriscaping, City of Lakewood
http://www.ci.lakewood.co.us/comres/page.cfm?ID=327&PrinciplesofXeriscaping/.hrml

• Xeriscape Colorado
http://coloradowaterwise.org//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=88&Itemid=21.html

FACT SHEETS FROM CSU EXTENSION

• Xeriscaping: Creative Landscaping
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/garden/07228.html
• Xeriscaping: Ground Cover Plants
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/Garden/07230.html
• Xeriscaping: Retrofit your Yard
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/garden/07234.html

BULBOMANIA by Carol King

Well, dear gardener, a couple of weeks ago I ordered 400 bulbs due to arrive in early October for planting. “Are you crazy? “ You might ask, and the answer might be “Yes”. I was crazy at the time, driven there by the heat during the dog days of August. You know how it is, it’s too hot to go outside so you lie under the fan and look at the dozens of bulb catalogs that begin to arrive in July. The pictures and the colors are so beautiful. And you begin to day dream winter and then spring arriving and first thing you know, you’ve ordered 400 bulbs (406 to be exact).

I chose mid to late blooming tulips hoping to fool the spring snows. My plan is to dig up several beds that I planted three years ago and replace them. They didn’t look great this year and I have learned that tulips are not necessarily perennials. They don’t come back well the second year. I have known this about tulips but assumed it was operator error. The other thing that has happened to me is that the tulips all become red and yellow after several years when they do return. Part of being hybrids I suppose. I have decided to treat them as annuals and replant each year. We’ll see how long that lasts. Planting several hundred bulbs each fall maybe doesn’t have such a great appeal. The 200 tulips are a variety of collections chosen solely on color and name: “The Rainbow Coalition” red, purple, and orange; “The Tang Dynasty” orange, white and yellow. There are a few varieties, which I didn’t choose, that are better suited for returning for several years: Darwin Hybrids, Fosterianas and many of the wild or species tulips can return. All of them need to be replaced periodically however. (Don’t tell me about your twelve year old tulip bed, please).

If you are wondering why the tulips don’t come back here’s a few reasons:
Blossoms. The longer a tulip blooms the more energy the bulb loses. But why plant them if you don’t want blossoms?
Weather. Long, cool springs allow tulip leaves to stay around and store more energy in the bulb. We can have a heat wave in May and June causing the leaves to die back too quickly.
Moisture. Tulips like to go through a dry dormancy period and we typically have to water our beds and grass and trees and shrubs so they often rot from too much moisture.

Now daffodils are supposed to be the most persistent perennial bulb ever. But I only got one year of daffodil blooms from 50 I planted when I moved into this house. The best my research has come up with is that they had a condition called “bud blast” which can be caused by too much moisture in the fall, too little moisture in the summer, late season freezes, or temperatures that warm up too much and/or too suddenly in the spring ... you know, our typical Colorado weather. I much prefer this analysis: a superstition in Maine states that you will cause a daffodil to not bloom if you point at it with an index finger. I am sure that I may have even shaken my finger at them when they didn’t bloom!
The 100 daffodils that I ordered include at least 20 different varieties and are promised to cover the full spectrum of bloom time. I, for my part, promise not to chastise them nor point at them.

One hundred purple and yellow crocuses complete the bulb package. I’m going to stick them everywhere!

Are Your Blossom Ends Rotting? by Carol King

It seems that all the tomato conversation lately has been about blossom end rot. I worked the Master Gardener booth at the JeffCo 4-H Fair and the questions there were about it in tomatoes. The Plant Clinic reports that numerous examples have come in concerning it in tomatoes, squash, eggplant, and peppers. The gardening hotline at the Extension Office is buzzing with rot questions. There’s obviously a lot of rot going around.
So what is this nasty sounding ailment? It starts at the end where the blossom was and begins turning tan, then a dry sunken decay sets in. The lesion enlarges, turns to dark brown to black and becomes leathery. Thus the blossom end begins to rot.
It shows up especially in the first fruit of the season and after the fruit is well on its way to development. In severe cases, it may completely cover the lower half of the fruit. Both green and red fruit develop it. It’s not a pest, parasite or disease process but is a physiological problem caused by a low level of calcium in the fruit itself. In other words, dear gardener, IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!
Why? Several factors may have been at work.
1. You rushed the season. Transplants should be set out only when soil temperature is above 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If you put your plants in, in early May and didn’t warm the soil that helped to create conditions for poor root development predisposing plants to blossom end rot.
2. You damaged the roots. If roots are damaged during transplanting or by hoeing later in the season that will increase the chance for blossom end rot. Don’t till within 1 foot of the plant, and when you do cultivate make sure not to go deeper than approximately one inch into the soil.
3. You inconsistently watered: watered too much, watered too little, did not water deeply. Plant roots take up calcium and other needed nutrients only when dissolved in water, so irregular watering is often the culprit with blossom-end rot.
4. You didn’t mulch. If the soil is allowed to become too dry, calcium uptake is interrupted. Keeping the soil mulched is a good remedy to prevent blossom end rot
5. You used the wrong fertilizer. Fertilizing with ammonium nitrate can create conditions ideal for blossom end rot. This type of fertilizer (and that includes large amounts of manure) can compete with calcium for uptake by the plant. It also causes excess soil salts around the plants.
All right, so you know now that you messed up. What can you do this season to salvage some vegetables? Improve the soil quality around your plants by maintaining adequate, consistent soil moisture through mulching and watering properly. Avoid high nitrogen fertilizer using instead, a slow- release organic fertilizer high in phosphorus. A mixed fertilizer with a ratio of one part nitrogen: three parts phosphate: one part potassium is ideal. Many fertilizers marketed for vegetables come with this ratio. Cut the spots off the affected veggies and eat what you can salvage. No you can’t catch blossom end rot from your produce.
And so, enjoy what you can this season. Next season, I know you will do the right thing and avoid all this rot!

Dental Hygiene and Vegetable Advice by Carol King

My dental hygienist is having trouble with her tomatoes and squash. She, of course, asked me all about it while cleaning my teeth. The squashes bloom but there is no fruit; the tomatoes are growing like crazy but have very little fruit or blossoms. What is she to do? My answers went something like this: “ze toahos hv too uh nitgen, n de sqs r mil blmx.” Then I asked her: “ut id u eed em?” It is difficult to dispense wise advice with a mouth full of dental tools.

The sum and substance of our conversation might be helpful to others (without the dental tools, of course). Her squash problem was not a real problem at all: squash have male and female flowers. The first flowers on squash (and on cucumbers, melons and pumpkins) are male. The female flowers come later and can be identified by the miniature fruit on the flower end. The female flowers need to be pollinated and with lots of pollinators like bees and wasps, she should have plenty of squash. She had male flowers; the gals would come later.
The tomato problem was probably due to too much nitrogen in the soil. Her garden was a new raised bed in which she and her husband dumped tons of store bought top soil, manure, and pre-fertilized garden soil. It sounded like they really overdid the manure which is extremely high in nitrogen. Excess nitrogen fertilizer can result in plants with extremely vigorous vine growth but little fruit production. She should get her soil tested next year and certainly not add any more manure.
These two publications from CSU Extension might be helpful.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07609.html
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/02949.html
As far as dispensing advice with a pick, a probe, and a mirror in your mouth; ‘orget ut”.

Embarrassing Weed Story by Carol King

Every gardener probably has an embarrassing weed story. An exotic plant pops up and is nurtured and later turns out to be a musk thistle. Or the new house has some gorgeous plant that resembles a sedum and is really myrtle spurge (on list A of the Noxious Weed Act of Colorado). The “morning glory” growing up the rake you left in the garden is not a piece of yard art but instead a neglected tool covered with bind weed!
My most embarrassing weed story to date happened last summer. I always let the sunflowers that pop up from feeding the birds grow, no matter where they are. It adds a sense of randomness to the garden that I like. Several came up in the front garden and started to grow, and grow, and grow. I knew they were going to be giant mammoth sunflowers; the kind that wins prizes and ends up in pictures of largest grown produce; next to the 1,000 pound pumpkin. I envisioned receiving the purple grand champion ribbon and could read the headlines: “Area Woman Grows World’s Largest Sunflower”.
All summer, I watered and fed my plants and was encouraged by the large leaves, the glossy green color and the height, my goodness the height. Toward the end of July, they actually grew taller than the eaves of the house and then flower buds appeared and did not look at all like sunflowers. I looked closely and saw that the leaves on my giant plants did not exactly match the leaves on the other sunflowers in the garden. I had the uneasy feeling that these might not be sunflowers at all.
Sure enough, research proved that my prize plants were Ambrosia trifida; and yes it is a member of the sunflower family (Asteraceae). I say this to redeem myself for feeding, watering, and tending giant ragweed all summer. At least I discovered my mistake before it bloomed. Each plant has the ability to produce about a billion grains of pollen. And because it is the greatest allergen of all pollens and the main cause of hay fever in North American, my three lovingly attended plants would have garnered the headline: “Area Woman Causes Sneezing, Runny Nose, and Itchy Eyes in Major Population Area”. And no purple grand champion ribbon either.

Preparing to Eradicate Giant Ragweed

Gotta Find a Home by Carol King

Let me tell ya a story about a hollyhock weevil: The gardener said to the weevil ”I see you’re on the square” Weevil said to the gardener, “yep my whole family’s there…..lookin for a home, gotta find a home.” The weevil said to the gardener”you better sell your machines, cause when I’m through with your hollyhocks you can’t even buy gasoline”. My apologies to Brook Benton but when ya got hollyhock weevils eating up your hollyhocks, ya gotta sing this song!

The hollyhock weevil is a strange looking bug that has a beak or a snout protruding from its head. If it were bigger, it would be one scary dude. I had to look closely at the blossom area (all eaten of course) to see them. In researching my hollyhock problem, I discovered that there are over 400 species of weevils in Colorado alone with 40,000 species worldwide. And I also discovered this bit of trivia: if every species of animal and plant were placed next to each other in a line, every 10th animal would be a weevil. And, yes, they are ALL looking for a home.

I used some organic insect killing soap which took care of some of them and then I thumped some of them off with my finger. The hollyhocks look really ratty but maybe I will still get a few blooms. In the meantime, if anything you have is being eaten up by something, go look, and if it’s got a snout you got weevils. Roses, rhubarb, sunflowers, strawberries, almost everything has its own special weevil.

Here’s some great information about weevils: http://whatsthatbug.com/Weevils.html.