because you deserve it all

Every year, I make a lovely autumnal arrangement on my porch with mums, gourds, and pumpkins.  And many years the neighborhood squirrels ruin them within a few days.  So this year I got smart and concocted a spray that will deter them from eating anything on my porch.  I am pleased to report that my arrangement still looks fabulous!  You should spray this on the pumpkins and gourds every 5-7 days.  It works like a charm. 

In a spray bottle….

one cup water

1/4 cup vinegar

1/3 jar of small Tabasco sauce or any liquid hot sauce

As you probably already know, Japanese beetles prefer fragrant flowers like roses.  We have all found several of them nestled in a single bloom.  Instead of cursing them each day, cut off the fragrant blooms and bring them inside.  You will most likely look at the roses more indoors than you would if you leave them in the garden – and the smell is fabulous too!  Soon you will find that you have less beetles overall because they are attracted to the sweet smellingflowers and will move on to torment someone else’s blooms.  If you find yourself with excess roses, give a bouquet to a friend or a family member.  You can also place the roses in water and store them in the fridge for up to a week.  Or dry a bunch and make potpourri.  Add dried roses and lavender to a sachet of bath salts and find a new way to relax and unwind.  So be creative with them because anything is better than letting your beautiful roses get chomped by those stupid little creatures. 

I always take some notes at the end of each growing season in my garden journal.  No matter how good your memory is, you will forget exactly where all your plants were and after many years the exact location and watering needs that your favorite plants do best in your landscape.  For instance, you can water your butterfly bush during dry times because you noticed how much better they grow during a wet growing season.  I think about each area of the garden and write about all the plants.  I try to make note of how much water they needed and how they performed and brainstorm about what may work better next year.  I also make notes about where I need additional plants or if I noticed that any areas are getting overcrowded.  This will help you decide which plants to add in the spring and prevent you from making the same error twice or to help you duplicate something that worked really well this year.  You should also make note of the type of fertilizer or pest control products you used so you can use them again.  It only takes about an hour and it is interesting to look back on several years of garden notes as your garden changes over the years.

It is important to not neglect your garden this time of year, particularly your perennials.  Make sure they are not having any stress from lack of water as this is the time of year that they begin to have more root growth for the upcoming winter months.  Be sure to prune old leaves and deadhead old flowers so the plant can concentrate on one last beautiful bloom and more importantly to establish a strong root system so you will enjoy it for years to come.  It is important to stop fertilizing by early fall too.

I find myself wishing away the summer so the stupid Japanese Beetles will leave.  They are coming in less numbers but I am still picking about 25-50 off my roses every couple of days.  I am pruning off the older blooms because they seem to be most attracted to those.  I am also cutting off the more fragrant blooms and bringing them in prior to them becoming beetle infested.  I often find 7-10 beetles ruining one fragrant rose!  Bringing them inside attracts fewer beetles and I get to enjoy the rose rather than cut it off the bush and put it in my beetle juice (aka soapy water).  The soapy water makes it impossible for them to fly and it kills them while not harming the environment or beneficial insects.  It is easier to get a large bucket of soapy water and cut off the entire bloom or cluster of blooms and drop it in the soapy water because I find that I miss beetles when I try to pick them off when there are several huddled on one part of the plant. 

This particular vinca is an annual flower that fills in a sunny area beautifully.  They can take full sun and a somewhat dry soil as long as they are watered frequently.  You should try growing vinca in a sunny area of your garden. 

I am thrilled to report that I only found 5 Japanese beetles on my roses last night.  This is a huge improvement over the rest of the nights this week.  This shows that a pan of water with dish soap can get rid of them without harming the environment.  They were so bad this year that I was not sure this method would still work.  Now I can spend my time pruning and dead-heading my flowers instead of worrying about the damage from japanese beetles. 

Visit Nursery Hills for some great online plants, shrubs, trees, and garden accessories.  They have a wide selection of plants that are shipped right to your home.  Check them out. 

I have seen little hummingbirds on my butterfly bush for the past two evenings. Tonight there were two of them out there. They are almost as interested in me as I am in them. One flew about a foot and a half from my face and actually stayed still for a few seconds. I snapped a few pictures but they move quickly so it was hard to get a clear shot.

If you have a bush infested and the beetles are eating the foliage/leaves then you probably need to get some pesticide and spray. There are simply too many at that point to pick them all off. If you catch them early then you can just pick them off and put them in soapy water to kill them. I only resort to chemicals when it is necessary. Besides when there are many beetles in one area they send signals to attract more beetles, which is why Japanese beetle traps typically end up attracting more beetles and making your problem with them even worse.