Garden Lessons

I've learned that the plants with pretty foliage are best for my deck planters. Usually by July the heat and bugs take a toll on flowers. The petunias were a very pleasant surprise this year because they kept producing all summer despite the heat.

I am very hesitant to use chemicals in the garden but I heard about an organic pesticide last year and gave it a try this summer. Not only did it take care of the little caterpillars that eat the petunia and geranium flowers, it also saved my vining vegetable plants. The past two years I haven't been able to grow any vining vegetables because the vine stems get invaded by some kind of burrowing bug around July which kills the entire vine. This year when I noticed signs of this I began spraying and did still lose one of my zucchini plants, but the rest thrived and produced a good crop.

I did try to spray only the vine stems and leaves and keep away from the flowers so as not to hurt the bees.

I planted a couple of heirloom tomato plants this spring. So far no ripe tomatoes but I've heard this wasn't a good summer for tomatoes so I guess I can't blame the plants.

I visited Lowe's for more mums and replanted two more pots. When I replant I move the geraniums to new pots and for some reason they always seem to like being repotted and quickly resume blooming.

Foxy always finds her way into the office when I'm on the computer, but at this time of year she prefers supervising while lounging on the cool desktop instead of sitting in my lap. Hope you have had a restful weekend and enjoy the last official week of summer!