Garden
Notes: Mysteries and chores in the mid-summer garden
August 4, 2005
By
Abigail Higgins
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Harmful or beneficial? Don’t bee too quick to judge. Photo by Susan Safford
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The dog days of summer will be with us shortly, if they are not here already. Days are hot; gardens are sometimes less than inspiring, and insects are numerous. Nonetheless, the insect life bears studying, as many are our garden friends despite appearances to the contrary. I believe every gardener should have at the very least a basic book about insects that may be encountered in the garden. Now that so many of us have computers at home there are online resources such as Bugguide.net also. Too often I have heard the same story repeated, of naïve people who have killed large garden spiders or hunting wasps, thinking that they are dangerous and posed a threat to them or their gardens. Conversely, there are many innocuous-looking or almost invisible insects, which can leave a swathe of destruction without our ever having noticed them. One of the results of indiscriminate application of chemicals is the elimination of the beneficial populations and processes upon which so much of our gardening success depends.
I want to make it clear that I have no qualifications whatsoever in entomology. For many of us our best tools are our powers of observation, our curiosity, and our willingness to leave fearfulness out of our interactions with the natural world. Recently I was with Art, a client, in his garden looking in amazement at the insect activity swarming on a patch of oregano gone to flower. Words to the effect of “Look at the size of those scary wasps!” were uttered by my companion as we surveyed a bustling two dozen or so gigantic hunting wasps (and myriad smaller bees, flies and bumblebees). These wasps are scary looking, and very large. I know no “certifiable” facts about them, apart from some vague taxonomy. However, in the past I have seen similar-looking wasps dragging large paralyzed caterpillars off to their burrows. When I assured Art that these wasps were beneficial, he got it — his attitude changed immediately! But I am dismayed to think of the numbers of people who might be attacking beneficial insects out of fearfulness and ignorance.
Explore the causes
Ecology lessons are good ones to try to employ in gardening. Many plants that appear to struggle are weak in some way. During the dog days, dryness in my garden is the frequent cause of garden problems, including insect attack. Use the water resource wisely and try to deliver it to the roots, not the atmosphere, and not the leaves. Try to build up a water-retentive soil structure through the addition of organic matter and compost.
Plants may be suffering some sort of unseen condition that predisposes them to succumb more readily than their fellows. Hypothetical scenarios follow: the single hydrangea that wilts before the others may have a major tree root near it that is literally diverting the soil’s moisture. The tree with more caterpillar damage on it than its fellows may be closer to the stop sign where the traffic idles, sending out carbon monoxide. The sickly rhododendron may be too close to the foundation that is leaching lime out into the soil. A downspout may be carrying chemicalized run-off from an asphalt roof into a bed that always seems to perform poorly. When these kinds of situations develop the role of the gardener is like a parent or a detective, attempting to puzzle out the solution to the problem and assist the plants back to satisfactory functioning.
To return to “roles” in gardens, this time of insects as well as our own, it is important to remember that far more is going on in the world outside than we can ever be aware of, and it is highly presumptuous for humans to assume that we should be the ones to know which insects are to be in the garden. There is more life in a tablespoon of soil than we shall ever know about, let alone see. Please be very wary of playing the role of gunnery sergeant bringing on the heavy artillery in the garden, and instead look upon yourself as the servant or assistant of what you want to achieve there.
Become a garden detective
For those who have a predilection for adopting the detective role in garden problem solving, there will be a chance to hear an interesting thinker and author, Tom Wessels, Wednesday, August 10 at 7:30 p.m. when the Polly Hill Arboretum presents its seventh annual David Smith lecture. Mr. Wessels’s talk is provocatively entitled “The Mythology of Progress.” It will be followed on Thursday, August 11, by a seminar entitled “Reading the Forested Landscape,” from 9 am to 1 pm, based upon a book by the same title in which, following the lead of May Theilgaard Watts, he will teach us how to look at our New England landscape today, to learn what happened here in times gone by. It is a book worthy of greater attention due to its beautifully presented fund of information and I would like to comment further on it, since it so well supports my own efforts to look with greater understanding upon the natural world.
Perhaps my favorite part is chapter two of “Reading the Forested Landscape,” (Countryman Press, Woodstock, VT. 1997) “Of Junipers and Weird Apples.” It presents a prototypical, middle New England landscape that is a good stand-in for Martha’s Vineyard. Mr. Wessels describes a stone wall running through a certain sort of woods and asks the reader to think about what happened there. The composition of the stone wall, the different kinds of trees in the woods, their sizes and shapes—all are testament to what took place there in the previous 100 years. He then continues with a discussion of pasture succession, the contrasts between pastures that have been overgrazed or not, and the phenomenon of “mast years,” where trees suddenly produce a great abundance of seed; and then a detailed digression on New England history and economics. Get your hands on this book! It will make you appreciate our Island and region even more.
In the gardens: deadhead and deadleaf daylilies to eliminate the bedraggling appearance of spent flowers and browning outer foliage that detracts from their otherwise gladdening display. Stake bulb lilies and platycodon; deadhead the heavy seedpods that weigh down their stems. Adopt a spray schedule for various conditions/problems such as powdery mildew and caterpillars on kale, cabbage, and cauliflower. Hand pick Japanese, oriental Lily-leaf and Asiatic beetles where possible since this equals “positive elimination.” Replant lettuce, greens, beets, and bush beans for a fall crop. Harvest and cure garlic.
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