Pest Buster Series - Fungus Gnats

Fungus gnats are those annoying little mosquito like bugs that seem to invade our indoor plants from time to time. They don’t bite and they tend to feed on dead plant material more so than live plant material, but they can be pesky just the same and it’s pretty easy to get ride of them. The larvae look like tiny little white worms just below the soil surface. The adults tend to stay on top of the soil and you might see them fluttering around when you water your plants.

For the most part, they are attracted to moist soil and dead plant material, so reducing the amount you water and keeping dead foliage cleaned up will help prevent them from invading in the first place.

If you already have a fungus gnat problem, you may want to repot your plants to help remove the larvae that are in the soil. Try not to disturb the root ball too much and remove as much of the soil as you can. Putting a ½ layer of sand on top of the soil will help keep the top of the soil drier and therefore less attractive to them.

If repotting is not an option, you can catch the larvae by putting a cut piece of potato on top of the soil. The larvae will be attracted to the potato and start feeding on it instead of the dead plant material in the pot. Check the potato daily and discard when you see larvae. Keep putting out a new piece of potato until you see no more larvae.

To catch adult gnats, set out yellow sticky traps near the plants. This is not the most attractive method, so you can also drench the soil with pyrethrin which is an organic pesticide made from the chrysanthemum plant. This will kill the adults and many of the larvae as well.

Another option is sprinkling Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) on the soil. Bt is a bacteria that kills caterpillars and larvae, so take care when using it around butterflies, but it is excellent for using indoors and will not harm children or pets when used as directed.

If fungus gnats are a problem in your greenhouse, you can plant pots of wheat to attract them to those plants instead of your prized plants. Once you see activity around the wheat plants, remove them and compost the plant and soil away from your plants. Replace those pots with new pots of wheat. Keep repeating the process as necessary. Since greenhouses tend to have a large number of plants in small area, this method works well with minimal effort on the gardener.

These Roses Must Think It's June

I still have some miniature roses in bloom. They are blooming better now then they did in June, it seems. They really love the cooler weather and the extra rain we've been getting. I have two of these and they are called "The Fairy".

I also thought you might like to see a full view of the 'Kousa Dogwood' (on the left) and my 'Limelight' hydrangea (on the right) in full fall color. The leaves are just about gone on the hydrangea, but the flower heads will hold all winter if we don't get too much snow at one time. I usually cut them off when we get a January thaw. They start looking raggedy by then and I'm usually itching to get out in the garden anyway.

I'll need to do some pruning on the dogwood next spring. The branches are way too low to the ground, and it has started sprouting a couple of suckers, so need to get them off of there.

I also noticed a Calendula starting to bloom. I wintersowed these last year and got them in the ground late. They are an annual, so it's a shame I won't get to see more of their blooms. Oh, well. They can tolerate cold pretty well, so maybe I'll get to see this fully opened. Since it is dark now when I get home, not sure if I'll be able to get another picture to show you all.

This last picture is of my zebra grass. I'm so glad I planted some grasses. I wish I had better soil to grow more. Someday I will have amended it enough to grow anything...just takes time.

Greenhouse Update #8

This past weekend wasn't as productive as I would have liked it to be, but we can only do so much with the weather given to us. Gary was able to work on the greenhouse for about 5 hours on Sunday. It's going to be tough now that it is getting dark so much earlier. The majority of the work was tedious and time consuming, but I believe we are now able to start siding the greenhouse this coming weekend, if the weather cooperates. Finally!

In the first photo, you'll see the trim is up on the side. The trim covers any seams and makes the corners look better in places that weren't perfectly square.

This is a picture of the back peaked roof area. Gary put up fascia to finish it off and put a trim piece across the bottom. All the trim pieces are basically scrap wood.
This picture is of the soffit and the trim pieces that were added to seal the gaps along the edges. Once caulked and painted, it should look pretty good.
This is the peak on the front of the greenhouse, at a little different angle, so you can see how the fascia was used to finish off the edge. As you can see, the window on this side is a 6-paned window, but the one on the back is solid. I had to work with what we had...LOL.

The final photo is close-up of the trim along the bottom of the one of the windows on the front side of the greenhouse.

How to make a high volume rain barrel system

I am a huge advocate of installing a rain barrel or two on your property. Here is a great tutorial on how to do just that.


High Volume Rain Barrel - More DIY How To Projects

Fall Clean-up of My Own

Saturday it rained most of the day so I was unable to get anything done outside, but Sunday was clear though a bit cold. Our high was only 52 degrees, but it felt good to get some work done outside. I sucked up a huge bunch of leaves with my Toro Blower/Vacuum. I only got the front and side yard done before my back decided I couldn't do anymore. It was too wet to just go over everything with the lawn mower, and I wanted the shredded leaves bagged so I could protect some tender plants and to add organic matter to a few beds.

I was able to cover a temporary bed used for holding some plants that I still have in containers. You may recall last year I lost dozens of plants to vole damage and some to rabbit damage. I'm hoping to prevent that this year by fencing the area against the rabbits and putting down a granular product called Molemax. I've used it many times with great success. It's made from castor oil, which they do not like. I sprinkled the pots and all around the pots with the granules and then watered it in. I will sprinkle more around the bed through out the winter, whenever there is no snow on the ground.

I also had plenty of leaves to put on some newly planted bridal wreath spireas and my Endless Summer hydrangeas. I did not cover them with leaves last year and I got very few blooms this past summer. They bloom on new and old wood, so they are a good choice for northern gardens, but they do need a little extra protection so you can get more blooms. I also covered to garden beds that hadn't had any organic matter added to them this year.

I still need to shred up the leaves in the back yard. Hopefully I will be able to do that next weekend and have some leaves for the compost pile and for the new round bed that was just put in this year.

I forgot I had some potted tulips to plant. Gary brought them home when a fund raiser was going to be throwing them out. They were selling potted tulips last spring to raise money for the school and were throwing out whatever didn't sell. I don't know if they will bloom next spring, since tulips are so iffy in this area, but I figured since they were free, I'd give it a shot.

Plastic Bottle Planter Box

Plastic Bottle Planter Box - More DIY How To Projects

I'm not a big fan of buying anything in small plastic bottles, but this is a good use for them if you have them already.

Five Mistakes Gardeners Make

I’ve been known to make a mistake or two in my gardens. I think we all have at one time or another. I also feel like I learned more from my mistakes than from reading many gardening books. That being said, I’d like to tell you about some of the more costly mistakes that are made and how you can avoid them.



Mistake #1 – Planting too close to a building, well or septic system
This is a huge mistake and I see it being done almost on a daily basis. It amazes me that even professional landscapers make this mistake often. Trees and shrubs should not be planted next to the house, period, yet it is done all the time.

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