Recently in Signs of Summer in Missouri Category

Balboa the squirrel just walked by with another love apple in his mouth.

We met under a sofa cover in my den a couple of years ago when he was
still a baby.

He inadvertently spent a weekend closed up in my house.

He used to periodically walk into the den when I left the door open for my
cats and, this particular weekend, I must have missed him sneaking in.

The house looked like they had had quite a party; lamps and books knocked over everywhere.  A trail of  empty sunflower seeds gave him away, and he reluctantly moved back outside with the encouragement of a broom.

Balboa still periodically peeks into the den through the glass door and chatters at me when I'm out on the deck,  calmly helping himself to green pears and most recently, cherry tomatoes.

Tomatoes are originally from South America via Europe. The French perpetuated the charming superstition that people who ate tomatoes fell in love and gave them the nickname "pomme d'amour" or "love apples." 

Although scientifically a fruit, the US Supreme court in 1887 ruled tomatoes were a vegetable and subject to an import tariff with other fruits of the vine like beans, peans and cucumbers.

I've noticed my ripening tomatoes this year need a little help. Because of record hot temperatures, they've either not produced fruit or are ripening unevenly with green patches.
 

I forego buying tomatoes over winter because they are picked so early and so green, they are tasteless. 

By mid-summer, I'm more than ready to add delicious home grown tomatoes to my salads.

They're certainly not as perfect as grocery store tomatoes but there's an easy way to get them ready.

I pop them into a brown bag with an apple, clip the bag top closed, and check the bag every day until the whole tomato is red.

One of my neighbors is also growing tomato plants in his backyard but he's having issues with stink bugs.

I planted marigolds around my tomato plants; a wonderful, easy to grow annual that keeps bad bugs away and that bloom continuously even through record hot weather.

Frankly I don't get excited about holes in plant leaves or seeing bugs in my garden. I want ladybugs, praying mantis and birds around; they are natural predators to the more damaging bugs.

Another friend recently told me he learned to spread corn starch with a fan over his vegetables, a great natural way to discourage bugs from taking the first bite out of your homegrown produce.

In the years I haven't added marigolds, I've used a homemade dormant oil spray:

Hot pepper concentrate
1 unpeeled onion
1 unpeeled head of garlic
1 TBS cayenne pepper
3 pints of water

Use gloves to mix. Simmer for 20 minutes. Cool. Store in refrigerator for 6 weeks or so. Dilute 1 TBSP with 1 pint water. Add dish soap to better stick on leaves. Apply with a spray bottle. Re-apply every other day or so.

Sorry, it doesn't work on squirrels. Balboa seems to think it's a great salad dressing!













Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, and a weekly newspaper column, on a MO hill
gardening to distraction. Copyright 2011, all rights reserved.

I knew the night I was sitting on my deck and was hit on the head by something grey flying by, I had a bat.

I was wrong; it was a moth.

The Carolina Sphinx Moth has to be one of the - well, cutest - moths around.

It has huge black eyes, and when it's at its full 4-inch size, it does resemble a small bat.

Carolina Sphinx Moths move among flowers at dusk and hang around outside lights at night.

What I didn't expect was to find how they get a start in life as tobacco horn worms.

Yes, those very elegant,  green caterpillars with 7 white stripes down their sides eating our tomato plants for a couple of weeks, fall into soil to pulpate, them metamorphize into these really charming moths.

Boy, did I feel guilty about all the tobacco horn worms I've picked off tomato plants over the years and, without a second thought , dispatched under my shoe.

Not that I don't want tomatoes. Since we're having record hot temperatures, and little is flowering and setting fruit, I decided to let tobacco horn worms eat to their heart's content. After all, don't we all plant far more tomato plants, and get more tomatoes than we can ever eat?

I know I do, and I have more than enough to share.

Guilt is a great motivator.

I have been periodically tempted to use pesticides in my garden but, after thinking about honeybees dying in part because of continued pesticide use, I don't. It's not just because of my honeybees. The trade-off is a few, slightly-munched on tomatoes in exchange for garden helpers who are part of a garden's natural community, with each bug having an important role to play. 

I was watching wild bumblebees walking gingerly through pumpkin blossoms earlier this week, their legs carrying a little yellow pollen from one flower to the next, ensuring I will have pumpkins this fall.

There was also an elegant black and white wasp checking over nearby baby cucumbers. Ever since I realized last year my 30-something year old compact pear tree is now loaded with fruit  because wasps pollinate pear flowers in spring, I don't mind them making nests in some of my birdhouses.

In addition to pollinating flowers, tobacco horn worms are also hosts to wasps, who lay eggs on horn worms.

There are several pesticides that kill horn worms, but  they also kill off all caterpillars. 

I have had  the most amazing crop of Swallowtail butterflies this year; yellow ones, black ones, and even one on US Fish and Wildlife's Endangered Species list, Giant Swallowtail.

Last year, several Swallowtail caterpillars ate one of my potted orange trees back to the trunk. Guess I could have sprayed it, but I didn't.

The potted orange tree is doing fine this year.

Did I mention everything is connected??





Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, and a weekly newspaper column, on a MO hill gardening to distraction.

It's easy to see how people can confuse this little Hummingbird Clear Wing Moth with a baby hummingbird.

Hummingbird Clear Wing Moths make a buzzing sound with its wings, similar to that of a hummingbird.

Like hummingbirds, Hummingbird Clear Wing Moths fly in a quick, darting manner, hovering over flowers while sipping nectar. Although this photo is not clear, I like it because it shows the hummingbird moth's wing in action.

 

The first time I mentioned "bee bars" to fellow beekeepers, I got very polite but definitely blank stares.

"Bee bars" are what I call sugar water feeding stations I've set up around my garden to keep my "girls" fed, and busy in this stifling weather.

Record hot temperatures make  it challenging for honeybees to find pollen. Once temperatures are over 90F, plants go into survivor mode, leaving honeybees with little to no pollen to pack back to the hive for food.

To make it through this slump, honeybees may eat their stored honey, which may leave them short to survive winter; or they'll raid the extra honey they've produced, for which I have a few plans myself.

I didn't know this last year when over Labor Day weekend,  I noticed a few honeybees checking out my deck plants and hummingbird feeders.

Still a little tenuous about being around them, I made a few modifications to hummingbird feeders so honeybees could easily, and safely, get to sugar water.

I had initially added two hives to my garden for pollination but I had yet to see any honeybees among my vegetables.

To guide the bees from one side of the house to my "toy," raised bed garden, I also sprayed my deck plants with sugar water; then set up feeders guiding them across the house.

It was a blast being with the bees.

They're adorable as they settle into the sugar water to drink, their hind quarters moving up and down in unison.

I also fed them in my hand, watching them chase each other and dip into the sugar water in flight.

I wasn't stung once, even though they at times would envelop my arm carrying a pitcher of sugar water, or buzz around me in the garden to let me know the "bee bar" was empty.

This year, I found hummingbird feeders with slits bees can easily access.

I also developed "bee pools" on top of my rain barrels.

After adding rocks and twigs where bees can land, I fill rain barrel tops with sugar water and then sit back to watch what shows up.

Besides honeybees, I've seen black and white wasps; sweat bees; carpenter bees; ants; bumble bees; several other wild bees I'm still trying to identify; black swallowtail butterflies, and three baby raccoons.

The last visitors show up after dark so I try to remember to store feeders inside my outside grill or they take the feeders apart. (Yes, bees sneak into the grill to find the feeders, especially early in the morning.)

Every once in awhile, a hummingbird will show up, hover around the bee-covered feeder and then take off.

I have a couple hummingbird feeders set up in front of the house in shade,  where hummingbirds can get a drink in peace.

Feeding honeybees is a common beekeeping practice, usually done to give honeybees an early start, or to tie honeybees over when there may be a pollen shortage.

Commercial beekeepers have feeders they place on top of hives; there's also a feeder where a jar goes into the hive entrance to feed less expensive corn syrup.

I suppose that's more efficient but I prefer to think of my short-lived bees as free-ranging, flying around the garden enjoying being bees and allowing me to watch them up close.

Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, and a weekly newspaper column, on a MO hill gardening to distraction.

Not really but isn't that a great name, gooseneck loosestrife?

I finally discovered what these charming clusters of tiny white flowers that drape over themselves like a goose neck were called last year, during Phelps County Master Gardeners annual garden tour.

Mae Law had a much better-behaved clump in her garden, and we discussed how to keep these effusive plants from getting out of hand.

These Missouri perennials can expand quickly so unless you don't want large drifts of these shade plants, keep them thinned out after they bloom.

I love anything that takes care of itself so easily so I don't mind them taking over bare spots.

Gooseneck loosestrife are butterfly and bee favorites.

They also make wonderful cut flowers so, just for those two reasons, they're a wonderful addition in any garden.

Goosneck Loosestrife grows by shallow runners so they're easy to pull out of the ground when the plants move into an area you don't want them in.

This time of year, I pay particular attention to what is growing in other people's gardens.

With record hot temperatures, I'm looking for plants that can make it through Missouri's USDA Growing zone 5b-6 punishing summers so I can invite them into my hillside garden.

Not surprisingly, many of the hardier plants are Missouri native wildflowers, like purple coneflowers.

There are many new hybrid coneflower varieties but my favorites are still basic pink ones, which attract butterflies and once established, seem to bloom all summer. 

Nadine Moreland, St. James, said her purple coneflowers have never looked better than they do this year and she hasn't done a thing to them, it's  as if they love this hot weather!

Another personal favorite is pink phlox, the perennial mother plant to the wide range of phlox hybrids.

Years ago, a gardening friend told me not to bother buying different-colored phlox because unless I can keep phlox hybrids apart, they will revert back to the basic pink.

Since I've never been good at coraling plants -  I do periodically chase  strawberries that have slipped downhill - I've let pink phlox settle wherever they want to in my garden.

Not surprisingly, their idea of where they should grow is  much better than mine. They've become a staple for a variety of butterflies, honeybees and hummingbird moths.

Have you noticed the lovely large burgundy flowers at the corner of Business Loop 63 and University Drive in Rolla, Missouri?

Those are hardy hibiscus, cousins to the more common perennial Rose of Sharon bushes, and sometimes trees, seen around town.

What I like about Rose of Sharon is they start blooming before fall sets in and once established, use their long tap roots to keep hydrated.

Just be careful trying to dig one up. I would wait until after a good, soaking rain or the long root will break off.

Black-eyed Susans also manage to pull through hot weather with little effort, although the ones facing southwest in my garden needed a little water earlier this week.

Tomatoes usually do well for me in summer heat but this year, my tomatoes seem to be holding their breath at green.

Plants at 95F or higher go into survival mode and don't produce pollen or allow fruit to ripen.

In the spirit of Native American's "Three Sisters" gardening, I'm letting green beans grow around my tomatoes to try to keep parts of them shaded. Squash is moving under the tomatoes, hopefully shading tomato roots.

Annuals like marigolds, vinca, petunias and zinnias have for years done well in hot weather, although I did spot a patch around 18th Street that looked a bit wilted.

Even hardy plants can use a little helping water now and then.

Mrs. Emma Johnson, who used to live with her son and his family off Soest Road, years ago shared her "secret" to keeping her plants doing well through "hot spells."

Instead of fertilizing her plants once a month, she cut the dosage to one fourth of the original amount and fed her plants from the bottom every time she watered, which she said encouraged her plants to grow longer roots and thereby grow faster.

I use a similar watering principle every time I bring sale plants home.

Instead of immediately popping them into dry ground, I give them a little diluted, fertilizer cocktail and give them a week or so to recover before transplanting them into a garden spot I've saturated with a gallon or two of water.

That way, dry surrounding soil won't compete for water from the potted plant.

Jerry Baker, Master Gardener extraordinaire, has an interesting recipe for a garden tonic to use every three weeks all season long. Mix and apply with your hose sprayer:

1 can of beer,
1 cup of ammonia,
1/2 cup of dishwashing liquid,
1/2 cup of liquid lawn food, and
1/2 cup molasses or corn syrup.

At this early stage of a long hot summer, plants can use all the help they can get!












Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, and a weekly newspaper column, on a MO hill gardening to distraction.

If you've ever tried to grow foxgloves, Missouri Wildflowers Beard-Tongue will quickly become a favorite.

A hardy perennial that likes shade and semi-shady areas, Beard-Tongue will survive a lot of abuse and still come back the following year as hardy, and pretty, as ever.

Unlike foxgloves, Beard-Tongue is shallow-rooted and self-seeding, making it an easy wildflower to add to a garden.

My first Beard-Tongue plant came from a friend's house; she didn't remember what the plant was and I had a shady spot that needed greenery.

Now years later, part of my spring routine is taking a weeder and after a rain, digging Beard-Tongue plant starts out of my driveway and moving them back into flower beds.

The name comes from a middle lip that is hairy, an open invitation to pollinators like honeybees and butterflies.

Beard-Tongue also makes a nice cut flower. Check the flowers before bringing them inside, I usually find a hitchhiker or two!

My assignment over July 4, 2011  weekend was to find one of my honeybee queens and (sigh) kill her.



One of my two honeybee hives has been struggling since late spring.

The verdict from more experienced beekeepers is that my queen bee - she's the only one in the hive of 40,000 plus honeybees that lays - is not laying her 1,200 eggs or so a day so she needs to be removed.



Normally a queen bee will live 4-5 years, as opposed to a worker bee's 6 weeks of life producing half a teaspoon of honey.

In nature, honeybees will determine when the queen bee needs to be replaced and grow their own new queen.The two queens will fight it out; sometimes the old queen will split from the colony and take worker bees to a new colony, or the new bee queen will kill the old queen and take over.



My bee mentor, Don Moore, had patiently helped me last year when I found out bees toss out and outright kill the drones, or male bees, in fall. Since they don't do anything in the hive but mate with the queen, the laggards are booted out as the hive prepares for winter.

According to Don, there is no such thing as drone bee rescue.



You'd think it would be relatively easy to find the largest honeybee in the hive. The challenge is there are 39,999 plus other, also moving honeybees, 20 frames to check, and worker bees helping to hide the queen.



I tried to set up the checked frames in a box to the left of the main hive; then I had honeybees all over the area.

At one point, I felt a bee inside my face net.

After quickly hiking back to the house, telling myself "stay calm," I removed the hat with the netting, released the bee, and found two spots where the screen was torn.

 For the record, I was not stung, although they would have had every right to do so. Wouldn't you be upset if someone bigger came along and tore up your home??

Rows of staples closed up holes in the net before I headed back to the mess I had left around the hive.


By the time I arrived back on the scene, my smoker had almost started a fire from the bale of straw where I left it as I moved quickly up the hill. 



Bees are now none too happy to have their hive taken apart; I started to periodically apply a whiff of smoke around me to keep myself calm.



I took the opportunity to clean propolis build-up on the hive.

Bees make this amazing glue-like substance from tree sap to seal hive holes but it can make quietly moving hive floors around difficult, and noisy. It's like trying to sneak into a house stomping boots on hardwood floors, hoping no one will notice.


Once I had the hive back together, in the right order, I hope - bees were hanging out on the front of the hive "bearding," clumping up together.

It's possible they don't have a queen bee. It's more probable I missed spotting her.

I'm hoping the bees realize they need a new queen and are growing their own.

Have you spotted the queen honey bee in the top photo yet? She's the biggest bee in photo, at the top, a little left of center.












Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, raising honeybees and writing a weekly newspaper column, on a Missouri hill gardening to distraction.
 




Wouldn't you know it, of all the plants in my garden to munch on, Japanese beetles started on my raspberries. Not just my raspberry plants, my actual berries!!!

These iridescent green, 3/8th of an inch beetles are a menace. Once they turn from grubs into beetles, they set off a scent that says "let's party" to other Japanese beetles and they seem particularly fond of fruit trees like this peach tree; roses,  and green bean leaves in my toy vegetable garden.

Since I don't like to use chemicals, I've been trying to sneak up on them to squish them in a towel. They're smart bugs; once they sense you're getting close, they literally quickly drop straight down, then take flight.

Last year. when I found them eating my favorite wild grapevine, I dropped Japanese beetles into a jar of soapy water. It seemed a kinder way to dispatch them but word got around and they soon flew off at the sight  of the jar.

According to University of Missouri Extension Service, Pyrethrins and Spinosad are effective and non-toxic sprays to try to manage Japanese beetles. It would be even better if the grubs could be located before they hatch but from what I've read, that's a lot more difficult to do.

Japanese beetles are among a number of green Missouri insects.

One of the more damaging insects is the emerald ash borer, spotted in 2008 at Wappapello Lake. This bug has killed some 60 million trees in 15 states, an according to Time Magazine. Cities are spending more than $10 billion over the next decade to try to stop them. You know it's a bad bug when there's a hotline number to report any sightings 866-716-9974 or contact State Entomologist Collin Warmsley at 573-751-5505.

For those of you who have emailed asking how my little toy garden is doing, peas are spent and I now pick a handful of fresh green beans every morning.

A couple of tomato plants are growing so fast they're looming over my little eggplant and green peppers. With this heat, I'm sure they appreciate shade.

The starter trays with seeds sitting at the top of tomato cages worked well until the plants outgrew the cages or it rained. The soil-filled tray bottoms are now on the ground hosting shallow-rooted zinnias, cosmos and marigolds. I should transplant them but I'm afraid in this heat they may not make it. A variety of flower seeds are also sprouting in concrete blocks.

Cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins are blooming, and I'm trying to daily pinch herbs to keep them from going to flower and loose their potency.

Catnip and spearmint are all over the place; one of my cats now seems to prefer munching on mint leaves. Either that or Bobcat may need glasses.

If you have a better, more creative way to get rid of Japanese beetles, let me know and I'll share in an upcoming column.

Thanks also for all the suggestions of what else to do with periodical cicadas. You are a creative, and ghoulish, bunch!











Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, and a weekly newspaper column, on a MO hill gardening to distraction.

If you enjoy watching hummingbirds, its easy to plant flowers that will bring them, and keep them, around your garden.

I have a number of deck pots full of plants specifically for hummingbirds, including various colors of salvia, which look like tiny hummingbirds, and petunias, all in a range of hummingbird favorite colors of red, pink and purple.

Don't these red salvia look like tiny hummers?

Hummingbirds are also very fond of single-blossom tropical hibiscus, which are native to hummingbirds summer grounds in Brazil. Since hummingbirds use their long tongues to lick, single blossoms are easier for them to access nectar.

There are also a number of Missouri wildflowers that I've personally seen attract hummingbirds,  including bee balm, columbine, purple coneflower and, I hear, indian paintbrush, something I have yet to successfully grow from seed but I'm still trying.

Hummingbirds also enjoy coral bells, fuchsia, honeysuckle,  russian sage, purple coneflowers and phlox.

If I had to choose only one flower to plant for hummingbirds,  it would be basic pink phlox. Once these perennials start blooming, they seem to maintain flowers the entire growing season, attracting a variety of not only hummingbirds but  a wide range of butterflies and hummer moths, often confused for baby hummingbirds.

If you don't have room for a lot of these plants, and still want to attract hummingbirds,  hang a hummingbird feeder from a tree tropical hibiscus.

There are a number of hummingbird feeders available on the market.

I recommend plastic ones so they don't break when raccoons take a drink, or two...

To make hummingbird sugar water, mix 1 part sugar to 4 parts water - no need to add red food coloring - and replace every few days, especially if the temperature is hot.  Don't wash hummingbird feeder with soap; use only hot water.

By offering both plants and sugar water, you are sure to attract these amazing birds into your garden!












Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, and a weekly newspaper column, on a MO hill gardening to distraction.