 |
|
|
 |
 
 |
|
|
|
August
While most of the country thinks of holidays, gardeners enjoy the beauty of a fully grown summer garden and the taste of home-grown fruit and vegetables. One of the good things about traditional holiday time is that heavy downpours of rain can usually be relied upon to keep the garden well watered. Watch out for thunderstorms and make sure your rain water butt is sufficient to store these heaven-sent reserves.
The ornamental garden
Many shrubs and border plants should be in bloom providing a riot of colour. Lavatera are rampant growers, but reward you with a host of pink or white blooms that cover the shrub for weeks on end. Buddleia too will be coming into bloom, with cone-shaped spikes of purple or white flowers that are particularly attractive to butterflies. For best results in the garden select a named hybrid such as Black Knight (dark purple) or Royal Red ( (purple-red) as these have richer colours. These shrubs grow with only the smallest root system and manage to survive in pots with very limited water supply. In fact travelling by train you can often spot stalwart buddleia examples growing and blooming from the tops of walls.
Rambler roses only flower once in a season and the old stems that have carried blooms need to be cut back to where new young stems are emerging. Tie in the new growth to tidy up the shape of the plant and feed with a rose food to ensure good strong growth.
Hybrid tea bush roses and repeat flowering shrub roses will be producing buds in time for their second flush of summer blooms. If you fed your flowering border at the beginning of the season with a slow release plant food such as Osmocote then just a standard feed of Miracle-Gro Soluble Plant Food should be sufficient to give them the strength to produce big beautiful blooms. Some people prefer to feed flowering plants with a special tomato fertilizer such as Tomorite as it is rich in seaweed and high potassium to encourage extra flowering and fruiting. When diluted in a watering can both plant tonics should be applied over the leaves as well as onto the soil so that the plant foods get in through the leaves as well as the roots. To avoid scorch to plant leaves, water and feed in the evening or very early in the morning when the sun is no danger.
As the soil dries out in the hot summer sun and plant roots are short of moisture, so powdery mildew spreads more easily and roses should be checked for the first signs of this white deposit on leaves and buds. When first signs are seen there is little that will help the situation other than spraying with a disease control product. Using a different one each time you treat your roses will help to give good control as repeated treatments of the same active ingredients aren't always advisable.
There are several different disease control products that are recommended for use on rose powdery mildew. They include FungusClear, FungusClear Gun! or if greenfly are also a problem choose a product that also contains a greenfly killer such as Roseclear 3 or Roseclear Gun!. Treating with these products will help to reduce the existing powdery mildew infection and protect foliage against further attack.
At this time of the year other diseases may be noticed on ornamental plants in the garden. Antirrhinum, hollyhocks, pelargoniums and chrysanthemum are prone to rust, seen as yellow orange or brown raised spots on leaves and stems. Latest trials from a leading consumer magazine indicates that early spraying of decorative plants with FungusClear is your best bet, especially if you can treat the young foliage early on in the season. If your plants are showing signs of the disease pick off and burn affected leaves, before you spray them with a suitable fungicide.
Not all discoloured or mottled leaves are due to diseases - pests are often the culprit. In hot weather thrips, often called thunder flies, suck the sap and eat the leaf surface leaving a silvery flecking on flowers and leaves. Gladioli and roses are particularly susceptible, especially when planted close to south facing walls. To prevent the flowers and foliage from being attacked spray the plants thoroughly, including the underside of leaves with BugClear or BugClear Gun! (bifenthrin) or Nature's Answer Bug Killer (pyrethrins).
Topical tip
Feed all bedding plants with Miracle-Gro All-Purpose Plant Food. If your water authority still allows the use of a hose-pipe use the Miracle-Gro Feeder to feed your whole garden in minutes. If not then dissolve it in a watering can and apply by hand.
|
|
|
ALWAYS READ THE LABEL. USE PESTICIDES SAFELY
Ant Stop! Bait Station contains fipronil. Ant Stop! contains chlorpyrifos. BugClear and BugClear Gun! contain bifenthrin. FungusClear ™ and FungusClear Gun! contain penconazole. Levington® Container & Hanging Basket Compost with Vine Weevil Control contains imidacloprid. Nature's Answer® Natural Pest Control contains pyrethrins. Roseclear® 3 contains bifenthrin and myclobutanil. Roseclear Gun!® contains bifenthrin and flutriafol. Verdone® Extra and Verdone Extra Ready to Use contain fluroxypyr, clopyralid and MCPA.
® , ™ , Miracle-Gro, Tomorite and Levington are Trade Marks of The Scotts Company or its affiliates. Roundup is the registered Trade mark of Monsanto Company. |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
