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Hello Great Gardeners,
Fall is my favorite time of year. I don't know about you, but I enjoy the cooler weather. I also love the smell and colors.
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As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, hit reply. I would love to hear from you. Have a great-gardening day.
Sincerely,
Holly
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Basics For Canning Vegetables
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Ohio State University Extension – Fact Sheet HYG-5344-02
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Redheaded Pine Sawfly Caterpillars
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Sawflies are so-called because the adults resemble flies and the females have a sawlike ovipositor that they use to saw open leaves or needles to lay their eggs inside.
- Larvae resembling caterpillars feed in groups and eat the needles from terminal branches.
- Large infestations may defoliate and kill small pines.
- The adult sawflies are 1/2 inch, brownish; stout bodied and resemble bees.
- The female deposits her eggs in needles, which results in rows of tan spots.
- The egg spots and larvae are present from May -June and again from August - October.
- The newly hatched larvae feed in groups and are usually found defoliating terminal branches.
- The mature larvae are 1 inch long, have reddish heads, and a yellowish-white body with 6 rows of irregular black spots.
- Fully developed larvae spin tough, golden brown cocoons in which to pupate.
- After pupating the adult sawfly emerges from the cocoon.
- There are two generations per year and prepupae overwinter in the soil.
- This sawfly prefers to feed on jack, red, shortleaf, loblolly, slash, longleaf, pitch, Swiss mountain, and mugo pines. It may occasionally attack white pine and other conifers.
- Stressed trees are most often attacked.
Management:
- Hand pick and destroy isolated infestations.
- Heavy infestations on many trees or large trees may be sprayed with a summer oil when larvae are small or a contact insecticide when larvae are large.
- Even though sawfly larvae resemble caterpillars, they are not. Bt will not kill them.
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Garden Mums
9 Inch Pot
5 or more
$8.99 each
(Regular $9.99 each)
(Does Not Include Igloo Mums or TriColor Mums)
Click Here To Order Online
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One of the easiest and most economical ways to improve your soil is to plant green manures, commonly called cover crops.
Winter rye is one such cover crop. It is a fast-growing cereal grain used to prevent erosion, smother cool-season weeds, and prevent loss of nutrients from exposed soil.
The best time for seeding is from late summer to mid-fall after you have removed all the plants from the vegetable garden.
You can best decide how to utilize this unique crop in the spring:
Green Manure: A month before spring planting, cut back the winter rye. Let it lay for a week, and then till into the soil, it will give back nitrogen for the next crop.
Animal Forage
Clean Mulch: Before seed set, you can cut it and use it for a very clean mulch around other crops, such as strawberries.
Leave to Mature: The grain can be used for making flour, rye bread, or rye beer.
Your own experience will ultimately determine what works best for you.
Sow 1lb. Per 250 sq. ft.
69¢ per pound
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Plant:
Begin planting spring flowering bulbs when night temperatures are consistently in the 40’s. Prepare the soil adding a low nitrogen fertilizer like Milorganite®. Plant bulbs 2 to 3 times their height deep. Shop early for a greater selection of varieties.
Fill voids and replace weather-worn annuals in gardens and containers with pansies, ornamental kale and other fall annuals. These plants tolerate the cool fall temperatures and extend your garden enjoyment even after frost.
In the fall, the stresses of summer are over. There is usually more rainfall, cooler temperatures, and ground temperatures remain warmer, making it the perfect opportunity to do that last-minute landscaping. Planting trees and shrubs now allows them to establish a healthy root system and to get off to a better start in the spring.
Early September is a great time to establish or renovate lawns. If the season was hard on your lawn, prepare for reseeding or over-seeding at the beginning of this month. Make sure you can water your grass seeding until the grass has emerged and started to grow. Wilson's has several free 'how to' sheets on these topics.
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Harvest:
Harvest remaining ripe vegetables; watermelons; apples, peaches, plums, pears, everbearing strawberries and raspberries, blueberries, grapes.
Harvest green tomatoes before a killing frost so that you can ripen them later.
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Clean:
Remove annuals and vegetable plants when they are done. Cleaning up gardens as you go. If any vegetables or annuals are diseased, avoid putting them in the compost pile and instead put them in the trash removal of dead plants decreases the possibility of over-wintering pests and diseases that will infect your garden next year.
Divide or transplant iris rhizomes, peony plants, and most spring and summer blooming perennials.
Net ponds now before autumn leaf fall gets underway to reduce the amount of debris entering the water.
Keep up with weeding until the ground freezes.
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Maintain:
Maintain a proper watering schedule. Keep watering as needed. Make new plantings, evergreens, and moisture-loving plants a priority.
Avoid:
Avoid pruning trees, shrubs, and roses at this time to prevent new growth that will not harden off before a hard freeze.
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Move:
Move your houseplants indoors before the first hard frost.
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