Let’s Get Gardening in August – Part 1

(Chelsea Update would like to thank Jennifer Fairfield for the information and photos in this column. Part 2 will publish tomorrow.)

Wow – we seem to have gone from feast to famine where rain is concerned, haven’t we?

Weather
June was incredible, with over six inches of rain, which is about twice our average. And for parts of July, we saw quite a bit of rain, but then it just basically stopped (well, until Sunday night, of course, when many of us saw over an inch of rain all in a couple of hours). June and the first half of July also had lower than normal temperatures, and then suddenly, we were having a heatwave.

The weather in Michigan is never dull, is it?

Insects, diseases and water
August is generally the month we find ourselves dealing with a few issues in our yards and gardens – insects, diseases and water (or the lack thereof). Insects are really starting to show up in large numbers, including Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, Mexican bean beetles, squash bugs and grasshoppers. But there are lots of good insects hanging out in our gardens these days, too.

Dragonflies and damselflies, tachinid flies, parasitic wasps, and many others are busy helping out. And we can’t forget the bees and butterflies pollinating our gardens. Unfortunately, it’s easy to forget all of them when all we can see is the ones doing their best to destroy everything we like.

My nemesis right now is Japanese beetles, and from what I hear from customers, I’m not alone. They have been helping themselves to my beans and basil. So my morning routine is to get up, go out to the garden and knock them off the plants into a bucket of soapy water before heading to the store. There aren’t a lot of other really effective organic options, and I am not interested in spraying my vegetable garden with lots of synthetic chemicals, so the soapy water is going to have to do the trick.

There are a number of reasons not to just let Japanese beetles have their way with your plants, in part because once you have a few of them, they send out a signal to all their buddies (not like the “bat signal” the commissioner sent out to Batman, but actually pheromones). They apparently don’t like to dine alone.

Favorite plants of Japanese beetles include roses, grapes, Virginia creeper, crabapple, apple, Norway maple, American linden, beans, basil and raspberries.

Another reason to not tolerate these insects is that the females will lay their eggs in your lawn, and in a little while, you will have grubs chewing up the roots of your grass. The more beetles that survive to lay eggs, the more grubs you will have, and the more damage those grubs will do to your lawn.

One thing that August’s usual dry weather is good for is that dry soil makes it hard for the female to lay her eggs. So, consider not watering your lawn while the beetles are active. Those traps people put all over their yards? Don’t waste your money. All they really do is bring more of the beetles to your yard, and you can’t possibly hope that the traps catch them all.

Lawns
While we are sort of on the topic of lawns, with the reduction in rain that August brings, lawns need a little different care than they needed when we were getting rain constantly. Your lawn is not going to grow as quickly, so it doesn’t need to be mowed as frequently. Also, because there is not as much water available to it, cutting a little higher is even more important, as the higher grass will help shade the roots and keep moisture in.

(Part 2 will publish tomorrow.)