August 14, 2006

August is a big harvest month in the vegetable garden. The warm season

vegetables ripen quickly. There are tomatoes, beans and squash to pick

daily. In the months previous planting, watering and weeding consumed a

lot of time. Now the weeds should stop sprouting leaving more time for

watering and picking.

About this time in the season I start to make note of how my plant

selections have performed so far. After many years of gardening I have

narrowed down the favorites according to taste and pest resistance. But

I also try new selections that promise better flavor or vigor. For many

years I’ve grown a variety of zucchini called ‘Butterstick’. It has

yellow skin versus the traditional green and excellent flavor. But its

best trait is that it has been the best variety for resisting insects

than any other that I have grown.

This season I tried yet another variety in my quest for a better

eggplant. ‘Billionaire’ produces slender 9” fruits with exceptionally

mild flavor in less than 60 days. The plants were so attractive they

could have been grown just for show! Even after an onslaught of three

different beetle attacks the plants are still hanging on.

Bush cucumbers are my usual choice for their space saving trait. This

year I chose ‘Picklebush’, another winner. This variety produced a

bumper crop of cucumbers (20 jars of pickles so far) and has shown

excellent disease resistance.

For the most part everything has grown well in the garden this year

despite the ups and downs in the weather. Only the pepper plants have

been disappointing. They struggled through the wet part of the season,

losing leaves to disease and rebounded just in time for the heat wave.

Peppers plants exhibit blossom drop in high temperatures. So far they

haven’t produced any fruit.

At this point in the season potted plants, both container annuals and

houseplants spending the summer outside, may be outgrowing their space.

If you are watering them once or twice a day, their roots may have

grown

to fill the container without much room left for the soil. Houseplants

should be re-potted by the end of summer before they return to their

indoor homes. Containers of annuals still have about two months of

growing time left before frost. Potting them up into the next size can

keep them looking good through the rest of the season.

 From now until the beginning of September is considered an ideal time

to plant or transplant irises. Iris beds become crowded after several

years and need to be dug up and thinned. A reduction in flowers is a

typical sign that the bed needs thinning. The rhizomes grow along the

surface of the soil making this digging project fairly easy. Use a

shovel or garden fork to lift the plants. Once out of the ground,

inspect the rhizomes for signs of insects or disease. Discard any that

are dried up or mushy.

Iris borer is the common pest that attacks iris. The eggs of the borer

hatch in the spring and tunnel down the fan of foliage to the rhizome.

Soft rot can be carried by the insect and infect the plant as well.

Inspect the rhizomes for borers or their damage and discard any

infected

ones.

Separate the iris into sections. Each piece should have one or two fans

of foliage and a section of rhizome. The foliage can be trimmed back

into a fan shape before re-planting.

Plant the rhizomes in a prepared bed that has good drainage to prevent

future disease problems. Space the plants 3-5 inches apart; positioning

the foliage in the direction you want it to grow. The rhizomes should

be

planted shallow, 3-4 inches deep, in groups of 3-5 per variety. Try to

point the fans to the outside leaving the center open for good air

circulation. Mulch the beds lightly to protect the new plants for the

winter. And keep the area free from weeds and dead foliage to

discourage

insect pests. The first spring after division and re-planting flowering

will usually be sparse. Fertilize iris in the spring and early fall.

Irises mix well with other perennials in the garden and most varieties

are deer resistant.

Beth Nardone, botanist, is a resident of Hillsborough and is the

Nursery

Manager at the Belle Mead Co-Op. Questions and comments can be sent to

bethtanical@patmedia.net <mailto:bethtanical@patmedia.net>

<mailto:bethtanical@patmedia.net>