Are Your Lilacs Blossoms Looking “Rusty’? Time to Prune By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo Joyce D'Agostino

For those who love lilacs, having those wonderful blooms and fragrance is a welcome end of the long winter. Lilacs now come in various shades of purple, lavender, pink and white. 

But now that the season for lilac blooming is over, you may notice that those lovely flower heads are replaced with unsightly rusty colored heads. This is normal for your lilac and not an indication of a decline in the shrub or a disease. However now that the blooms are done and before the lilac prepares for next season, you have a window of time now in June to do some removal of those old flowers as well as some pruning.  

Getting your Poinsettia Plant ready for the upcoming holidays By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo: Kansas State University

If you have a Poinsettia plant from last year that is still in good condition, you can follow a few tips to get it ready to show its colors for the holiday season.

Preparing and Storing Pumpkins and Winter Squash By Joyce D’Agostino

Pumpkin, Big Max
Photo:  Joyce D'Agostino

It’s that time of year when pumpkins and winter squash are reaching their peak maturity. These vegetables are not only highly nutritious, but they make wonderful fall decoration displays.

Protecting Your Fruit Trees from Pests – Part 2 By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo by Joyce D'Agostino

Earlier this year, I began an experiment using heavy duty netted tree bags to try to preserve our apple harvests. Refer to the original blog dated 6/28/2021. In the past, we have had the entire crop of any tree fruit quickly wiped out by squirrels and also significant damage from birds. 

Choosing the best sunflowers for your garden By Joyce D’Agostino

Sunflower, Pastiche
Photo by Joyce D'Agostino

Most of us are familiar with the bright and cheerful sunflower. These North American native flowers are easy to grow and provide not only beautiful flowers but a wealth of pollen and nectar for beneficial insects. 

Protecting Your Fruit Trees from Pests By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo:  Joyce D'Agostino

Many of us who have fruit trees on our property have planted them in order to enjoy the harvests. In the front range of Colorado, choosing the right variety will ensure that your tree is best suited for the climate and will produce harvests. 

Once your trees have bloomed and the pollinators have done their work you will begin to see developing fruit. The next step may be how to protect that fruit from weather, pests and animals so that the fruit matures and harvests are possible. In addition to storm damage such as high winds and hail, birds and squirrels are known to do a lot of damage to fruit crops. Often they will remove the fruit even before it is ripe or eat some of the fruit leaving the rest to spoil.

Early Growing Season notes and reminders By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo: Joyce D'Agostino

For those of us who regularly garden, we often are already thinking what to grow and not grow for the next season. As the seeds are sown and seedlings planted, it often doesn’t take long for gardeners to find out what is doing well and thriving.

Is Produce safe to harvest and eat after a frost? By Joyce D’Agostino

Courtesy University of California Ag Department

This year has been challenging for gardeners on many levels. Here in the front range of Colorado, we had two unexpected frosts that happened over two holiday weekends. 

Wildfire Ash Deposits on Garden Produce By Joyce D’Agostino

Those of us who live and garden in the Western United States have found not only the air quality has been impacted by the recent wildfire smoke, but also have found ash has been deposited on the plants, produce and the soil. 

Harvesting and Storage of Your Squash and Pumpkins By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo: Joyce D'Agostino

Now that we are approaching September, its a good time to review how to harvest and store some of your garden produce. Crops like winter squash and pumpkins are ideal for long term storage and can provide great nutrition throughout the winter months.

Winter squash is different than other squash such as zucchini and yellow squash which have thinner and more tender skin and are not suitable for storage. Examples of winter squash include Butternut, Hubbard, Acorn and Kabocha. This type of squash take almost the entire season to produce fruit and mature. Their firm skins and flesh make them durable for longer term storage and there is a wide variety of sizes, shapes and colors.  

Photo: Joyce D'Agostino

Pumpkins also develop a firmer skin at maturity and can be kept in storage as well. Both pumpkins and winter squash are ready when they have fully developed their characteristic skin color and their stems have turned brown. Since some varieties could have specific criteria to determine when they are ready, refer to your seed packet or seed catalog for additional tips.

Photo: Joyce D'Agostino

Once harvested, you can lightly wash the squash and pumpkins and allow them to air dry and cure before bringing inside to store.

Photo: Joyce D'Agostino

Photo: Joyce D'Agostino

Check your Extension information to find the average date of your first frost and following hard frosts. Some squash and pumpkins can tolerate a light frost but if a hard frost is approaching, you should harvest any pumpkins and squash still on the vine and bring inside. When stored properly some may finish ripening indoors.

If you didn’t grow a winter squash or pumpkin this year, make note to try it next growing season. It is fun and gratifying to have your own homegrown Halloween pumpkin or winter squash to serve at your Thanksgiving dinner. 

Refer to the helpful publications below regarding end of the season harvesting and storage of your winter squash and pumpkins:  Storage, Pumpkins, Fall Squash, HarvestStories, Vegetables

2020 – The Year of the Lantana By Joyce D’Agostino

Lantana Photo:  Joyce D'Agostino

Each year the National Garden Bureau selects a group of plants to be featured as  their Plants of the Year. This year, Lantana was chosen as one of those honored plants.

Helpful Toads In Your Home Garden By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo: Joyce D'Agostino 

This spring as I was moving around some bags of soil in my garden, I found a large toad that was hiding beneath a bag. I almost missed seeing it since its color blended in very well with the fallen leaves and gravel to make it almost unnoticeable.

Summer Dragonfly Activity By Joyce D’Agostino

Photo by Joyce D'Agostino

You may have noticed them – large flying insects that look like miniature airplanes traveling back and forth through the air. Their size and shape may make some think that they could be an insect that could be harmful to people but in fact Dragonflies are very active and important insect predators and are not found to be harmful to humans. They prefer to spend a lot of their time catching flying insects including ones that are annoyances to humans such as houseflies and mosquitos. 

Memorial Day can be Planting Day by Joyce D'Agostino

Photo: Joyce D'Agostino

If you love to garden, you know how hard it is to wait to finally plant your summer garden. Often this begins with weeks of starting seeds inside under lights, nurturing the seedlings and then getting the young plants acclimated for the final place in your garden.

Houseplants bring health and enjoyment to your work and home by Joyce D’Agostino

Photo:  Joyce D’Agostino

In recent years, studies have proven how including plants to our surroundings not only helps to clean the air but to help us improve our mood, concentration and focus.

Host Plants for Butterflies by Joyce D'Agostino

Painted Lady

Swallowtail

We are all aware of the need to support pollinators in our gardens and this includes butterflies. Butterflies are part of the ecosystem of beneficial insects that helps promote a healthy and balanced environment. Providing the necessary food, shelter and water for these insects helps attract more into your yard.

Often butterfly gardens focus on growing the plants that provide nectar for butterflies. While these plants are important food sources, it is essential that host plants are also included. A host plant is one that will allow the mature adult to lay eggs which emerge into caterpillars. These caterpillars use the host plants for food and shelter as they develop. 

Many host plants are native plants but some are readily found in garden centers as transplants or easy to grow from seed. For example, black swallowtail butterflies will use common kitchen herbs such as parsley, dill and fennel as hosts for their caterpillars. 

Providing both the host and nectar plants that are available in succession over the season will help bring more butterflies (and other pollinators) into your yard and garden.  Recording which butterflies visit your garden will also help you know the host and nectar plants that each need. 

The fact sheet and link below provide an excellent chart and detailed information to help you know what to plant to attract butterflies and support them all summer. 

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/attracting-butterflies-to-the-garden-5-504-2/

http://coloradofrontrangebutterflies.com/butterfly-families

https://xerces.org/pollinators-mountain-region/

Dealing with Hail By Joyce D’Agostino

Hail, photo by Joyce D'Agostino

For many of us, having to deal with hailstorms is a reality. In this area of Colorado, we are in a hail zone meaning that we can experience more than the average hail events, and some of them can wipe out your garden in minutes.

In 2009, the Denver area had a very devastating hailstorm that included powerful winds. This occurred in late July, after about 9 PM and my mature garden was shredded. Not only was this very upsetting, but it told me that in order to try to successfully garden here, that weather protection, especially from hail is a must. Just recently we had a very powerful hailstorm in this area that including very large hail so there was not only damage to cars, roofs and siding but also damaged anything that was unprotected in gardens and landscapes. Hail can happen in any season so finding some permanent solutions that can stay up year-round will help.

Japanese Beetles in Colorado by Joyce D'Agostino

Photo courtesy colorado.gov

As gardeners, we often struggle with the unwelcome visitors to our garden, whether it be a disease, an invasive plant or an insect pest that causes damage. The Japanese Beetle is now present in Colorado and can do significant damage to landscapes and lawns. This insect is not native to the US and came to the East Coast about 1912. Because it is not a native species, it has no natural predators that help control it.

Spring Forward With Your Gardening By Joyce D’Agostino

It’s March, and for gardeners this means that Spring is quickly approaching. For most of us in the US, we will observe the “spring forward” by setting our clocks an hour of daylight ahead on March 10, 2019 to observe Daylight Savings time. This month the “Vernal Equinox” or the first day of spring also occurs in March on March 20, 2019. 

Choosing the Best Seeds and Plants for Your Garden by Joyce D’Agostino

For gardeners, this time of year brings exciting arrivals to your mailbox – the new seed and plant catalogs. Sometimes the selections are so tempting that you might want to break your budget to buy as many of the wonderful varieties as possible.

Before you begin placing your orders or making the visits to your garden centers, an important rule is choosing the “right plant for the right place” which will bring more enjoyment and success. Even if you are an experienced gardener in our climate, there may be some plants that you want to try and not certain if they are appropriate for your region.