Washington County Cooperative Extension Service

August 2020

Volume 16

August To Do’s 2

Healthy Evergreens 3

Deadheading Flowers 4

Wheelbarrow Series 5

Recipe of The Month 6

Inside this issue:

HORTICULTURE

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Extension Service

Fall Vegetable Planting Time It seems that the growing season has just begun, however it is time to start

thinking about fall. Early August is the time to start planting and planning for your fall garden. Many people don’t even think about vegetable gardening in the fall but it is actually the best time to grow many of our cool season vegetables. Taste and quality of most cool season vegetables is better in the fall because the weather is getting cooler when harvest and ripening time nears instead of hotter like it does in the spring. Vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflowers, and turnips develop bitter compounds in hot weather; however in cooler weather such as in late September and October these plants store sugars and starches which greatly improves their taste.

Now is the time to plant broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower transplants into the garden. Keep in mind; these are cool season crops that will need extra water in hot dry weather to get established.

You can also seed crops such as beets, bush beans, kale, collards, Bibb lettuce, and radishes in early August. Radish can even be planted all the way to mid September. With beans, keep in mind that generally bush beans can be planted until August 15 and still make before frost, however be sure to pick early maturing varieties. The other crops mentioned can be planted anytime in August.

Many people in our area don’t plant spinach because it tends to bolt (go to seed) and doesn’t have a mild flavor. This is because they plant it too late in the spring and hot dry weather causes the flavor to deteriorate as well as stresses the plant which tells it to reproduce or bolt. Fall planted spinach in September won’t go to seed because of the cool weather and day length and leaves can be harvested to cook or add to a salad. These smaller spinach plants will generally over winter and give you early great tasting spinach next spring.

After your fall crop is up and actively growing side dress it with nitrogen fertilizer such as urea. Apply 3 tablespoons of urea per 10 feet of row four to six inches away from the plants. If it doesn’t rain water the plants soon to activate the fertilizer.

Flowers

To control powdery mildew on begonia, phlox, rose, or zinnia try not to wet the foliage. Use a fungicide spray such as Cleary's or immunox.

Continue to dead head annuals and perennials unless you want to save the seeds. Most of our annuals will continue to bloom until frost if kept dead headed, watered, and fertilized. Many perennials will re-flower if dead headed as well.

Divide perennial phlox, day lily, iris, and spring flowering bulbs such as tulip and daffodil in August.

Trees And Shrubs

Water trees and shrubs once a week, especially spring flowering ones. They set next years flowers buds in late summer and fall.

Don’t prune trees and shrubs now. This will force new tender growth that will get killed this winter.

Apply a new layer of mulch if you haven’t already. This will buffer the soil temperature this winter and will hold in much needed moisture during the late summer and fall which is generally dry.

Lawns

If you have dead looking spots in your yard don’t be alarmed it may just be dormant. When and if we have wetter cooler conditions many

of these “dead spots” may green up.

Sharpen your lawn mower blade.

Mid August is the time to control grub larvae. Mow your lawn and rake any grass clippings or thatch

before applying any chemical. This will allow the chemical to get into the soil faster. Apply Dylox or Bayer Advanced 24 hour grub control.

Don’t fertilize turf until October, November, or December. Fertilizing now will only stress the turf even more.

Get a soil test done now on your lawn. The results will be available later this fall when the recommended one and only fertilizer application for low maintenance turf is needed.

Fruit

Keep mulch at least 2-3 inches deep around bush and vine fruits to control weeds and conserve moisture.

Prune out old canes that have fruited from June-bearing raspberries. This will reduce disease spread.

When the raspberry and blackberry harvest is over spray the plants well with sevin. This will kill the Japanese beetles and the cane borers.

Now is a good time to thin out strawberry plants. It is best to leave 5-7 plants per row for a good harvest next year.

Make a mental note of the apple and pear trees that have had or have fire blight. Next spring those are the trees that will have the most cankers. By pruning those out you will greatly reduce the amount of inoculum available for the disease to spread.

If your apples are late maturing continue sprays for apple scab. Also any leaves that fall should be raked up and disposed of because they harbor spores for future disease outbreaks.

It is a good idea to clean up fallen fruit from under any fruit trees instead of letting it decompose in place. This debris will also harbor disease organisms for next years outbreak.

When picking and ripening blueberries it is best to allow the berries to remain on the plant for 3 days after it turns purple. This will allow it to develop maximum flavor and sugar content.

August To Do’s

Healthy Evergreens Are Year Long Jewells in The Landscape Source: Rick Durham, extension professor, UK Department of Horticulture

Evergreens can be great additions to a landscape, offering interest and splashes of color during winter’s black-and-white palette. They’re also relatively maintenance-free plants.

Three evergreens in particular are often found in the home landscape. Taxus, also known as yews, are popular evergreen shrubs that are often used as foundation plants around a house. Arborvitae’s tall columnar shape work well in groupings that act as screens, and mugo pines are used for their low, spreading habit. Though different in size and texture, all three conifers can exhibit the same types of problems.

If you notice some needles browning or areas of dieback on the evergreens in your yard, there are a number of things that might be causing it. First, it is natural for older needles on evergreens to turn brown and drop off, especially in the fall. But if browning persists, the trouble might come from disease or insect pests. Adverse growing conditions also could be to blame.

This year’s late freezes hit many evergreens just as they were putting out new spring growth. The unseasonably cold temperatures resulted in an array of dead needles at the tips of the branches. Don’t worry. The plants will bounce back, and no permanent damage was done in most cases.

Root damage due to “wet feet” or root rot can both cause needle dieback. Yew, arborvitae and mugo do not like excessive moisture in the ground. Heavy clay soils, sites near downspouts, or overwatering can all lead to unhealthy plants. Before you plant, amend clay soils with organic material to help the soil drain better. If the shrubs are already established and moving them isn’t an option, consider installing French drains or rerouting downspouts to avoid water draining directly into the plant’s root zone. Planting on a high spot is preferable to placing them in a low-lying site.

If you’re seeing dieback on one or more branches, check for physical wounds such as torn bark, partially broken branches or nursery tags that were not removed and might be girdling the branches. Also look for dead, sunken areas on twigs and branches that show yellowing and dieback. Several fungi can cause cankers that girdle branches. In all these instances, prune off dead or damaged branches.

Some evergreens will show damage from spider mites in the summer, though the mites are most active in the cooler spring and fall months. Spider mites feed on the chlorophyll in the needles, causing yellow spots. Shake a branch over a light-colored piece of paper. They are so small, they will appear as tiny, moving dark flecks on the paper. If you see more than 10 mites, you should treat the shrub with a miticide, available at most home-and-garden stores.

Bagworms may also infest evergreens. These caterpillars attach bits of plant material to a cocoon covering their body. When they are small, they move about the tree and feed in late spring and early summer. This is the time they are susceptible to insecticide sprays. Once the bagworms are stationary and the caterpillars pupate in late summer, they no longer feed, and insecticides are ineffective. However, female bagworms will lay several hundred eggs in each bag, so it is a good idea to remove and destroy bags in fall and winter

Deadhead For Longer Blooms Source: Rick Durham Extension Professor UK Department of Horticulture

In the garden, the practice of deadheading your plants can promote more blooms.

Plants live to reproduce, and the way they do that is through their flowers. When you remove dead blooms from a plant, you also remove their ovaries. Many plants then take the energy it would have used to produce seeds and put it into producing more flowers, hoping the next time you’ll leave it alone to do its job. Of course, if you want continuous bloom in the garden, you won’t.

From a purely aesthetic perspective, deadheading can improve the looks of your garden by reshaping plants and removing unsightly waste. Not all plants will rebloom after deadheading, such as daylilies and daffodils. In fact, deadheading is used more for annuals than for perennials. However, the practice can still benefit perennials by forcing them to put their energy into the bulb or rhizomes rather than into seed production. This often produces hardier plants that bloom more profusely next year.

Deadheading can also prevent reseeding, which can reduce your time spent weeding later. However, in late summer or early fall, allowing some

plants, such as coneflowers, to form seeds can give overwintering birds and other wildlife an important food source.

Deadheading is an easy task and one that you can do as you stroll through your garden on a pleasant summer’s day. Simply pinch or cut off the dead bloom below the flower and above the first set of leaves. Do this to all the dead flowers on the plant. Some perennials, like dianthus, bloom profusely all at once, which means the flowers will fade at the same time. It’s often easier to deadhead these with shears, taking the top one or two inches off the stems. This can stimulate a second bloom, though it will not be as lush as the first bloom.

If you have multiple flowers on a stem, wait until all the flowers have faded, then cut back the main stem.

Some annuals, like petunia and verbena that produce lots of blooms also present a problem when deadheading. It is tedious to remove all the spent blooms. Wait until a natural break in bloom, cut the plants back, and apply fertilizer (only to annuals not to perennials in summer). Make sure there is ample water after fertilization. Many annuals will respond by renewing growth and resuming flowering. Other annuals, like Wave petunias and Profusion zinnias often don’t need to be deadheaded. They will either continue to bloom without your help or are sterile and will not produce seed.

Some perennials that will benefit from deadheading include foxglove, bee balm, hollyhock, coreopsis, butterfly bush, lavender, salvia and scabiosa.

February 13 Climate Change And Its Affect On Fruit Production In Kentucky

February 20 Starting Plants From Seed Indoors

February 27 Bountiful Blueberries

March 5 Heirloom Tomatoes

March 26 Growing Asparagus In Kentucky

April 16 Queens Of The Garden….Hybrid Tea Roses

April 23 Lovely Lilacs

April 30 Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit

May 7 How To Develop Monarch Butterfly Habitat

May 14 Perennials For Late Summer And Fall Color

May 21 Hosta's….Not What You Think

May 28 Sensational Sunflowers

June 4 Growing Hardy Figs In Kentucky

June 11 Growing Flowers For Drying

June 18 Easy Orchids

June 25 Growing Lavender In Kentucky

August 13 Aloes….Not Just Vera

August 20 Growing Great Greens In The Fall

Basic Registration For Any and All Classes $5.00 X

Total From Above

Minus Discount of $10.00 if Doing Entire Series

And Paid In Full By 2-13-2020

TOTAL

September 10 New And Interesting Shrubs

October 29 Putting The Garden To Bed

October 22 Holiday Cactus (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter)

October 15 Naturalizing With Hardy Bulbs

October 1 Vivacious Viburnums

September 17 Re-blooming Bearded Iris

September 3 Composting 101

Gardeners Wheelbarrow Series 2020 Call the Extension Office to register at 859-336-7741

245 Corporate Drive Springfield KY, 40069 Office 859-336-7741 Fax 859-336-7445

Email dennis.morgeson@uky.edu

Washington County Cooperative Extension Service

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Ingredients

Directions

Recipe of The Month - Corn Salad

Directions

1. In bowl, combine vegetables.

2. Stir in dressing.

3. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Ingredients • 2 cups fresh or frozen whole kernel corn,

cooked and drained

• 3/4 cup chopped tomato

• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper

• 1/2 cup chopped celery

• 1/4 cup chopped onion

• 1/4 cup ranch dressing