MAY
In the Edible Garden
- Tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons, peppers & eggplant need at least 8 hrs. of sunlight for best fruit production.
- Plant warm-season vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and vine crops after mid-May.Control cucumber beetles, carriers of cucumber wilt, as soon as cucumbers germinate to prevent disease. This disease will cause plants to wilt and
die just as cucumbers start producing.Make a home for toads, which eat cutworms and other insects. Invert clay flowerpots in shady spots. Chip out a piece of the rim to give the toads an entrance to their home.
- To insure pollination of sweet corn, plant several rows together in a block, rather than in one long row. Keep well watered, especially from tasseling time to picking.
- The Agricultural Research Service has found that size & quality of tomato harvests increased significantly when plants were grown over red plastic. Potatoes & green peppers produced best when the plastic was white.
- Plant cannas, gladioli, dahlias, tuberous begonias & caladium mid to late May.
- Multi-flora petunias withstand heat better than other types and are more resistant to botrytis, a disease that attacks petunias during wet weather.
- Watch for European pine sawflies on Scotch, Red, Jack and Mugo pines. Larvae have a black head, black legs and a dark stripe bordered by white stripes down the side of the body.
- Use plastic milk jugs for seed irrigation. Take a large nail & punch holes 2 inches apart in the side of a jug. Bury with the neck protruding. Fill with water and screw on the cap. The water will gradually seep out providing a slow, deep irrigation for surrounding plants.
In the Interior Garden
- Adding fertilizer to a dry root ball burns the roots, damaging or killing the plant. Water dry houseplants before fertilizing & never fertilize wilted plants.
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