Connecticut Garden Journal

Late summer is sunflower time. With our cloudy, rainy summer, our sunflowers have taken their time to grow large and flower. But now they are in their glory.

Many gardeners think of the large headed, 10 foot tall 'Russian Mammoth' sunflowers when they think of this plant. But there are so many different selections now with smaller sized flowers, multi-stemmed plants and different flower petal colors. 'Italian White' has pure white petals, 'Velvet Queen' has red colored petals, 'Ruby Eclipse' has bicolored red and cream blooms, 'Limoncello' has light yellow petals and 'Autumn Beauty' is a mix of many of these colors. These selections grow 4- to 5-feet tall and produce tons of flowers. There are even 2 foot tall dwarfs, such as 'Teddy Bear', with double yellow petals that hardly look like a sunflower.

Sunflowers not only add color to the late summer garden, the seeds are edible. Cover heads with brown paper bags once the petals drop and you notice bird activity around your plants. When the seeds start dropping in the bag, cut the head and let it dry in a warm, airy location. Remove the seeds and roast for a snack. The large headed varieties are best for snacking, but leave some for the birds, too!

For another treat, harvest unopened sunflower heads, steam them and eat them whole like artichokes. You'll be amazed at the sunflower/artichoke flavor of the flower buds.

Grow sunflowers in spring in full sun on well drained soil. Grow in clumps so they support each other and don't flop and you can enjoy the color show even more.

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When I think of flowering bulbs I usually think of spring bloomers such as tulips and daffodils. But I'm reminded of another group of fall flowering bulbs that add a blast color to the late summer garden.

Let's start with fall flowering crocus and colchicum. These two bulbs look similar to the spring flowering versions, but bloom now. Fall crocus is also known as saffron crocus. The orange stigmas in the flowers are edible. You can see why saffron is so expensive when you realize how many crocus blooms you need to get this spice. Colchicum is a bright pink flowering, autumn bulb that is large. 'Waterlily' is a double petaled selection that really puts on a show.

Another great fall bulb is the crocosmia. 'Lucifer' is the most common variety with its bright red colored blooms. But there are yellow colored selections as well. Crocosmia are in the same family as freesia and gladiolus so the leaves will look familiar. The flower forms later than glads and the small, brightly colored blooms flower on arching, long stems. It looks great mixed with other fall blooming perennials.

Finally, lycoris or naked ladies is an unusual fall bloomer. It grows foliage in late spring then dies back in summer. By fall, single stems emerge from the soil with bright pink, trumpet-shaped blooms. It's also called magic lily for that reason.

Plant these bulbs in spring. All are hardy to zone 5 and come back reliably when grown in full sun on well-drained soil. Even deer don't bother them.

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The veggie harvest is coming in fast and furious right now. It's important to stay on top of the harvest or else, your small veggies can turn into unruly monsters that don't taste so great either. So, here's a simple guide of when to harvest some of the most popular veggies.

Our bush and pole beans are producing tons. It's best to harvest these on the young side as the beans are more tender. When in doubt, pick. For dried beans, wait until the pods have turned brown before harvesting.

Summer squash and zucchini can grow into boats, if left unchecked. We harvest our summer squashes with the flower still attached. They're small and delicious at that size and we avoid having to deal with the zucchini bowling pins. The one exception is if we want to stuff out zucchinis. Then we let them grow a little bigger.

Harvest tomatoes when they turn the color of that variety, They, of course, continue ripening indoors. Harvest sweet peppers once they turn, red, orange, yellow or purple for the sweetest flavor. Harvest winter squash after they turn their mature color and the skin is tough enough that if you press your thumbnail gently on it, it doesn't break. 

Harvest onions when about 1/3rd of the tops start flopping over. Dry them in a warm, airy location for storage. Harvest potatoes when the tops start to yellow and dry those in a warm, airy place, too.

Finally, harvest basil by cutting off whole stems instead of individual leaves. This will encourage more stem growth and bigger leaves.

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One of the stars of the perennial flower garden is phlox. Phlox paniculata and Phlox maculata are the two most common tall, garden phlox species. They feature plants that grow 2- to 5-feet tall, grow best in full sun and like well-drained, moist soil. You can grow them in part shade, too, but they won't flower as well and are more susceptible to diseases. Tall garden phlox are clump forming perennials and you can divide them in spring.

One of the biggest concerns with growing phlox is powdery mildew. This fungus can attack the plant's leaves turning them yellow and white and making a mess of your phlox plants. The easiest solution is to grow powdery mildew resistant varieties. 'David' is the classic white. 'Shortwood' is a rosy-pink colored variety that grows 3 feet tall. 'Goldmine' is a bright magenta colored flowers and 'Candy Store' comes in a range of bright colors.

If you do have a favorite garden phlox variety that gets mildew each year, you can reduce the damage. Space plants further apart so they don't touch each other. This allows for better airflow, drier leaves and less disease. Reduce overhead watering for the same reason.

There are also some preventive sprays. Horticultural oil and a baking soda solution create an environment on the leaf surface the fungal spores don't like so won't grow. These sprays only work on healthy leaves and won't stop an infection that's already started. For the baking soda, mix 1 tablespoon of baking soda with 1/2 teaspoon liquid dish soap in 1 gallon of water. Spray early and often, especially after a rain.

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The tomato crop is ripening and lots of gardeners are enjoying cherry tomatoes, sauce tomatoes and big, fat juicy slicers. But for some, all is not tomato sandwiches and smiles. Various conditions and insects can cause tomato fruit damage. I've talked about tomato hornworms and blight before and you can check out those topics on my website. Today, I want to talk about other problems.

Tomato skins with cracking, splitting or long scars, are usually caused by genetics or weather. Heirlooms are more susceptible than many hybrids. Also, wet or dry weather will stress the skins and cause splitting. Try growing different varieties and try mulching. The same is true for rotting at the end of some fruits. Blossom end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency in the skin due to fluctuating soil moisture conditions. Elongated sauce tomatoes are most susceptible. Keep the soil mulched to prevent this problem.

Green tops or shoulders on ripening tomatoes is usually a genetic trait often found in heirlooms or is caused by too much sun and heat. If you really love that heirloom variety, just cut off the green top and eat it. Otherwise, try different varieties or shade your plants in the afternoon to keep them cool.

If your tomatoes have cloudy spots on the skin and those areas are hard, it could be damage from stink bugs. These bugs pierce the skin to feed, causing this reaction. Control stink bugs by hand picking them or spraying pyrethrum spray in the evening after the bees have all gone home.

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While flower gardens are exploding with color, another place to look for some color in mid-summer is with shrubs. Here are some summer bloomers that can compliment all the other flowers in your garden.

Summer sweet or Clethra alnifolia is a versatile, deciduous, native shrub. It grows in full sun to part shade up to 6 feet tall in a range of soils. It has few pests and even deer and rabbits don't seem interested. The best part is it flowers in July with spikes of white, fragrant blooms. Grow it near a deck or patio and you'll be enjoying the scent, and the butterflies and hummingbirds, with breakfast and dinner. There is a pink flowering version called 'Ruby Spice' and a 2 foot dwarf named 'Crystalina'. Summer sweet also has attractive, yellow, fall foliage.

Caryopteris or Bluebeard' grows 2- to 3-feet tall and produces dark blue flowers in late summer that butterflies and pollinators love. The foliage has a pleasant scent and the flowers continue until frost. Grow Bluebird on well-drained soil in full sun. In zone 5, it may dieback in winter, but simply give it a hard pruning in spring and it will send up new growth and still flower.

Cotoneaster isn't known for its summer flowers, but its fall berries and foliage color. This hardy shrub grows 1- to 3-feet tall and up to 6 feet wide. The red berries are stunning in late summer and fall. Plant in full sun on well drained soil for best berry production. Cotoneaster is also tolerant of wind and salt spray.

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It's berry season. We lost many berries to a late frost, but our blueberries and grapes look fabulous. So, I'm hyper focused on protecting them from our main culprit; birds. We've tried a number of ways to keep birds off our berries.

At first, we tried hanging reflective objects, including holographic tape, in the berry patch. A breeze moves the objects and the light bounces off them scaring the birds. We also tried scary eye balloons that mimic a hawk's eye. They both worked to a certain extent, but the birds eventually got used to them.

There aren't many repellent sprays available, but one I tried with some success is a home remedy, trialed by the University of Massachusetts Extension. It consists of 4 packets of grape flavored Koolaid in a gallon of water. Spray this solution on ripening berries; the birds don't like the flavor and leave them alone. Simply wash the Koolaid off before you eat the berries. You do have to reapply the spray after it rains.

The best solution, though, has always been netting. I found just laying the net over bushes and plants isn't enough. As long as large birds, such as cardinals, bluejays or crows can sit on the netting and poke at berries through it, you'll lose a good share of your crop. That's what happened last year with our grapes. So, this year we bought 8 foot tall, plastic coated, metal posts, put a tennis ball on top of each and draped netting over the posts and plants to create a cage. So far, it's working like a charm.

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The recent spate of hot weather has really pushed along many of our vegetables and flowers. Cool loving plants such as peas, lettuce, spinach, viola and primroses are wrapping it up and the heat lovers, such as tomatoes, squash, melons, zinnias, basil and verbena, are taking over.

As the cool season annuals fade, I'm a big proponent of succession planting. Succession planting means whenever there's an open space in your vegetable or flower gardens, pop in something else to grow. This saves space, increases the amount of veggies and flowers you have, and it's good for the soil to have plants growing on it all summer.

Here are some succession examples that work well. After your peas, lettuce, spinach and radishes are finished in early summer, there's still time to plant bush beans, carrots, beets, summer squash and basil in that area. It's best to grow the basil and squash from transplants, if you can still find some at local nurseries.

A nice annual flower succession is after pansies, violas, spring bulbs and primroses finish, plant calendula and dill from seed and geraniums and petunias from transplants. Garden centers may still have many of these annuals this time of year and even if they're long and leggy, they respond well to pruning and fertilizing.

If you're growing beans, carrots and beets in the garden area, as soon as you're finished in late summer harvest them. And then plant a crop of spinach, radishes, arugula and lettuce in August and September. In one bed you can have 3 different plantings giving you food and flowers all summer and saving space.

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While I don't mind the scratches and scrapes I get working in our yard, I don't like the itchy rash I get from poison ivy.

Poison ivy is a tall vine that climbs dead or living trees and shrubs. The chemical that causes the rash, urushiol, is present in all parts of poison ivy plant. Even in winter if you damage a stem or root, you can get a rash. Some people are severely allergic to urushiol, so shouldn't work around the plant.

Although poison ivy is a vigorous grower and likes the edge of forests, partly sunny areas and even can creep on the ground. It's a native plant and not considered invasive. In fact, poison ivy has some good attributes. Many insects and animals feed on the leaves, the tall vines create a wind buffer at the edge of a forest, and the white berries are a bird food source. So, if you have poison ivy on your property that's not causing harm, leave it.

First identify the vine. The stems have hairy, aerial roots that attach to trees. The plant has 3 leaflet leaves with jagged edges. The young leaves can be red, while older leaves are green. If you must remove it, be diligent. Poison ivy will regrow from roots left in the ground. If mowed down continually, it will adapt by growing as a creeper with smaller leaves. And never burn poison ivy.

Wear protective clothes, gloves and boots, and dig out the root system. For thick vines, repeatedly paint a specific herbicide on the cut stump. Wash clothes and yourself well after working.

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There are some insects in our vegetable garden that reproduce fast. One of them is the squash bug. This garden pest overwinters under rocks, in weeds and under debris around the garden. In June they lay copper colored eggs on the undersides of summer squash, zucchini, winter squash and melon plant's leaves. The eggs hatch in about 10 days into small versions of the adult, grey, squash bug.

The grey youngsters feast on the squash leaves, flowers and even young fruits, causing damage for 4 to 6 weeks. In Connecticut there's usually just one generation a year, but the populations do overlap. It's important to control this pest now before their numbers soar.

While many gardeners will reach for an insecticide to stop the damage, there are other options. Planting nasturtium flowers around the squashes has proven to reduce egg laying because the adults can't detect the squash plants due to the scent the nasturtiums. You do need large nasturtium plants for this to be effective.

Also, crush the copper colored eggs laid in groups on the underside of the leaves. I find if I keep up with the egg laying, I have fewer squash bugs by the time the plant's fruit. You can also lay boards or rolled up newspaper around the squash plants in the evening and look for the young squash bugs in the morning. They like the dark, cool, conditions, but can move fast.

If you must resort to insecticidal sprays, apply them in the early morning or late evening when most of the bees aren't in the garden. The sprays are less toxic to bees when dried.

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