July Gardening Tips

• Apply nitrogen to potatoes and sweet corn in the garden, as needed.
• Harvest vegetables early in the morning or in the cool of the evening.
• Plant short-season vegetables such as peas, carrots and radishes (70 days or less) where space is available after harvesting.

• Apply a second cover spray in July to control codling moths in apple and pear trees.  Check updates at http://utahpests.usu.edu/ipm.
• Water turfgrass with 1/1 2 to 2 inches of water per week in July and August.  Avoid over-watering to satisfy one or two brown patches.

• Measure the amount of water the sprinklers are providing the lawn.  *For information on performing a water audit go to: http://extension.usu.edu/htm/horticulture.
  
• Mow turfgrass 2 ½ to 3 inches long to prevent stress and help with weed control.

• Watch for grub damage in turfgrass, and apply a curative registered insecticide, if necessary.
• Feed roses with an all-purpose fertilizer.

• Apply borer control to the lower 1 foot of the base of stone fruit trees (peaches, plums, apricots). Go to http://extension.usu.edu/htm/horticulture for more information about peach borer control.
• Pre-register for the Budding Workshop held July 16, 9-10:30 am USUBC Greenhouse by going to http://asapconnect.

Art in the Garden Gala: Thursday, June 23rd

I hope that we get a lot of people out to our Art in the Garden Gala this Thursday.  It is going to be such a great free, family event.  This is the third year that we have held an open house to celebrate our 17th Anniversary with you.  Each year this fun event gets better and better.  This year's schedule goes as follows:

3-8pm  Art Stroll through the gardens--come check out some beautiful local art and watch the masters paint on site.  We have 17 artists participating this year!

3-8pm Garden Tours provided by our wonderful Master Gardeners

5,6,7pm Local Musicians will be performing in our Rose Garden
The three performances are as follows:
5-6pm  Harpist, Maren Baumgartner
6-7pm Aspen Strings
7-8pm Acoustic guitar duo

5,6,7pm  Kent Teichert, owner of 'For Your Kitchen' will be showing how to prepare the perfect fresh salssa and how to perserve the harvest with a dehydrator.

We will also have Poppin' Johnny's Ice Cream for sale.  Trudy is making an Ogden Botanical Garden signature flavor.  So come and eat the best ice cream in the world and tell us what you think of our secret flavor!
CB Kettle Corn will also be making their famous kettle corn.  The gardens are going to smell heavenly!
We will also have cotton candy for the kids and adults!

Spray Now to Prevent Wormy Apples Later

Codling moth larvae feeding on a apple.

Every Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-3:30pm people call in with horticultural questions. The most asked question this time of year is when to start spraying apple and pear trees for the codling moth.  The codling moth is the pest that causes wormy apples and pears in the fall.  So when do we recommend that you start spraying?  The answer is June 18th for Weber County residents.  With all the rain we had this weekend you can start your spraying schedule this week June 20-25 and you'll be just fine.  To get more information about the codling moth and timings of sprays, please follow this link to the Utah Pests website.

Most Asked Questions of the Week

www.utahpests.usu.edu Here are some of the answers to the most asked questions this week.  Thanks to the Utah Pests website for being such a great, reliable source for helping  us diagnose the pest problems that we see on a regular basis.  They have wonderful  pictures and up-to-date information for the homeowner. This past week we have a lot people asking about what is wrong with their peach trees.   They have lost lower limbs of their trees, the leaves came out in the early spring but now have fallen off, or the leaves are misshapen.  USU Tree Fruit IPM Pest Advisories provide nearly weekly updates on current insect and disease occurences, biology, and treatment recommendations for Utah.  Updates run  from mid-March through September. You can subscribe to their IPM advisory and receive  updates by email.   PEACHES/NECTARINES

Coryneum Blight (Shot hole) Shot hole lesions are starting to appear on leaves at this time. Shot hole (or coryneum blight) overwinters in buds and spreads from there to leaves and later in the season, to developing fruit. On the leaves, you will see small round holes that may be purplish or tan in color. The center of the lesion will sometimes still be attached. Cool, wet weather contributes to spread. At the shuck-split stage, you can use Bravo (chlorothalonil, Daconil for residential use), Abound, Captan, Ziram, or Pristine. And keep in mind that the most important treatment is an application of copper at 50% leaf drop in the fall.

Peach Leaf Curl In the past, we have seen peach leaf curl in Box Elder, Davis, and Weber counties. Peach leaf curl is a fungal-caused disease that affects peach and nectarine. We may see it again this year due to the prolonged periods of cool, wet weather we have had this spring. Damage may not be evident until later in May or early June. Infection occurs just as the leaves are opening, and causes puckering and distortion of the leaves. The affected area is pink at first, and then turns green, then brown. Leaves will drop. After the initial infections, new ones only occur when temperatures are below 79 F. If you see these infections, note that there are no fungicides that can be applied at this time. The best treatment is a single application of a fixed copper applied at leaf fall. For now, maintain tree vigor of infested trees by thinning more fruit than normal, reducing drought stress with irrigation, and applying extra nitrogen fertilizer.

Dont' Forget the Flower Sale

We planted our annual beds today!  Yipee!  Thanks to the help from our wonderful Master Gardeners we were able to get all the planting done in one day!  You guys are awesome! 
We have plenty of beautiful and unusual flowers for sale and they are a great price!  You won't find better or more affordable plants anywhere!
Most annual flowers are $12/flat or $1.50/4-packs
Lisianthus are $16/flat or $2.50/6-pack (our most asked about flower at the gardens!)
Geraniums $1.50
Cannas $1.50
Sale is on Thursday from 2-6pm.  Remember that Friends of the Garden you get an additional 20% off these already low prices.  See you tomorrow at the sale!

Blooming Beauties

Even though the weather has been pretty crappy for us gardeners, there are some plants that aren't complaining.  Last week I took some pictures of the happy little guys.  There are the crabapples that have been blooming for the last month starting with the variety Spring Snow, Sugar Tyme and finally the Bechtel beauties.

Bechtel Crabapple up close and very personal.

Bechtel Crabapple blooms again.  Don't the they look like little rose buds?

 The perennials this year are very late.  We have one lonely iris blooming in the horseshoe bed.  They aren't even ready for Memorial Day.  Very strange.  The columbine is one of the first to bloom in our gardens and we are excited to see it in all its glory.

The columbine is blooming in the water-wise flower bed.  Isn't that a cool color for a spring bloomer?

The Arboretum has some hidden blooming beauties as well.  Tucked under a huge clump of cottonwoods I saw the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) sticking out it's cute pink blossoms.  With all this cool weather this little tree is lovin' life and putting on quite the show.  Jerry said that flowering dogwoods are perfect here in Utah as long as they are given some shade.  You should give them a try.

Flowering Dogwood in the Arboretum shaded under a huge cottonwood. 

Are these pink flowers the coolest thing you've ever seen?

Oh, yeah!

Sorry, I couldn't get enough of them.  I'm lovin' these dogwood beauties!

Aren't these the cutest cones you've ever seen?  Couldn't they be considered blooming beauties as well? They are from the  European Larch in the Arboretum.

Finally, here is the reason why they call this tree a Lace Bark Elm.  Awesome exfoliating bark.  Wouldn't you agree?

Jerry Answers Some Tough Spring Questions

Jerry will answer questions ranging from powdery mildew to how to get the greenest lawns.  He also highlights some awesome and unusual annuals.  We will have many of them available at our Flower Sale on Thursday, June 2nd 2-6pm.  Hope to see you there!