Connecticut Garden Journal

When I say earwigs, some people still think of the old, folkloric myth that earwigs can crawl into your ear and eat your brains. Although they like dark, moist places, sorry, they aren't that aggressive or interested in us. Earwigs are beneficial to the garden and are more complex than you think.

Earwigs look more formidable than they are. They can climb up your flowers or veggies and feed on the foliage, but they're also likely to eat insects, dead plants and table scraps, too. The pincers look daunting, but they're mostly used as defense against attacks from other insects.

Earwigs fill a great role in the garden as a predator of aphids and other small insects. They eat live and dead plant materials, too. Earwigs love dark, damp places and often are found under boards, branches and logs. They feed at night, so you may not see them. If you suspect earwigs are eating your plants, simply roll up a few sheets of a newspaper, add a little oil in the middle and sprinkle some water on it. Then place the newspaper under plants or in a shady spot in the garden. In the morning, open up the paper and see if the earwigs decided to spend the night inside. Simply dump out the earwigs in another location away from your plants.

Earwigs can fly and are social insects. They lay eggs and keep them warm until they hatch like birds. They will feed and foster their brood until the youngsters have molted a few times and are ready to face the world by themselves.

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It's strawberry season. Taking the kids or grandkids to a pick-your-own strawberry farm is great, but what's even more fun is growing strawberries yourself. Strawberries are one of the easiest fruits to grow and there are types for every garden.

The June bearing strawberry varieties, such as 'Jewel' and 'Sparkle', produce an abundance of fruits now, then are finished for the season. They're great for freezing and making jams. They produce an abundance of runners and can also be used as a ground cover. Day neutral strawberry varieties produce strawberries in smaller batches all summer. These varieties, such as 'Evie2' and 'Seascape', are bushy plants that don't send out many runners. They're great in smaller space gardens and containers. Alpine or wild strawberries come in small sized, red, white and yellow colored fruiting varieties. These bunching plants stay small, don't run and produce fruit all summer. They're great container and ground cover plants.

All strawberries love full sun, but alpine strawberries also grow nicely in part shade under a tree or around low growing flowers. Plant strawberries now for next year's harvest. Pinch off flowers of June bearing varieties the first year to let the plant get established. Pinch off flowers of day neutral and alpine types until July 1, then let some flowers set for a late harvest.

Protect strawberries from birds with netting and harvest once the berries are full colored for best flavor. June bearing types have runners that create a mat of plants. For best production next year, thin rows, in late summer, to 1 foot diameter and space plants 1 foot apart.

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The plant known as the “king of the herbs” hales from India and has been cultivated for more than 5000 years. It's in the mint family and now is grown around the globe. Yes, it's basil.

While many of us of Italian descent think of basil as the Genovese, large leafed type, there are many more varieties and tastes of this herb. ‘Sweet Dani’ is a lemon flavored variety. There’s also a ‘Lime’ flavored basil. ‘Siam Queen’ is a good anise-flavored Thai basil variety. To prevent disease problems, 'Prospero' is a new Genovese variety that is fusarium wilt and downy mildew resistant.

Growing basil is easy, if you remember a few qualities of this plant. Basil doesn't like it cold. Now that the soil and air has warmed consistently, it's a good time to buy some transplants of basil or sow some seeds. Also, basil produces best if you keep harvesting it. When picking basil leaves, remove whole stems, versus just individual leaves. This will encourage the plant to keep making large leaves that are easiest for picking and using in the kitchen.

Grow basil in full sun, on well-drained, fertile soil. Basil likes some compost when planted to keep it growing strong. Keep the plants well watered and mulched to keep weeds away.

While it's best to pinch off the flowers as they form to encourage more leaf growth, plant extra basil plants and let those go to flower. Basil is an excellent plant to attract bees, pollinators, and butterflies to your garden. Plus, some varieties, such as Thai basil, have colorful, purple flower stems and blossoms.

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If you're looking for a mid- to- end of summer splash in your flower garden, grow dahlias. This tuber starts out slowly in our cool spring soils, but picks up speed in summer. By August, whether you grow the small, low growing types or the large dinner plate dahlias, they all put on quite a flower show.

Dahlias are not hardy in our cool Connecticut soils, so they need to be replanted each year. Wait until the soil warms to plant. Dahlias thrive in full sun on fertile, well-drained soils.

The key to where you plant dahlias lies in which types you grow. Dahlia varieties come in a range of colors and can be low growing, or up to 5 feet tall. There are more than 20 different dahlia flower shapes with the most common being the pom-pom, water lily, cactus, and decorative ones. The larger types benefit from staking or caging to keep them upright. They have tender stalks that are susceptible to flopping and even breaking during summer storms.

Dahlias make great cut flowers. Pick them in the morning, place the stem in 2 inches of very hot water and allow it to cool for an hour. They’ll last for up to one week.

In fall, after frost has blackened the stems, cut them back and dig up the tubers to over- winter indoors. Clean off the soil, and store them in a dark, cool basement in slightly moistened sand or peat moss. Check periodically in winter to see if the tubers are drying out or rotting. Mist with water or dry them out depending on the situation.

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Often gardeners are in a dilemma about what ground cover to grow around perennials and under trees and shrubs in a shady area. I've got two solutions.

Sweet woodruff (Galium oderatum) is a perfect ground cover for full to part shade. It has fragrant, lance-shaped, bright green leaves all summer and dainty white flowers in spring. It's easy to grow and adapts to a wide range of soil types and moisture conditions. Not only that, it's deer and rabbit proof.

Sweet woodruff spreads quickly, especially in average to wet soil. The underground rhizomes allow this perennial to creep fast, so it can become too aggressive in some yards. Weeding and withholding water will slow its spread, but with some rains it will come right back.

Another shade ground cover is lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis). It's not a true lily, but in the asparagus family. It has large, dark green leaves and fragrant white or pink flowers in spring. It's a perennial that will slowly spread by underground rhizomes to fill an area. It thrives in shady spots and forms a dense carpet of greenery choking out weeds and other plants.

The key with keeping these aggressive ground covers in bounds is planting them in the right places. We plant lily of the valley between a porch and our house foundation so it can only spread in one direction. It's much easier to weed out of unwanted areas this way. Another option is to plant near a deep edging, walkway or other solid border. This will prevent the spread, or at least make it easier to control.

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I'm all about making gardening easier and more rewarding. One the best ways to accomplish both goals is to grow plants in raised beds. Many gardeners are familiar with raised vegetable beds, but you can also plant annual and perennial flowers, herbs, berry bushes and even small trees in raised beds.

Raised beds are perfect for poor quality soil, and sandy and clay soils. By raising the beds up, you'll build healthier soil, plant closer together, plant earlier in spring, reduce waterlogged beds and not compact the soil. Beds should be at least 8 inches tall, not more than 3- to 4-feet wide and as long as you like. I like 8 foot long beds because the wood doesn't warp. Two inch diameter wooden beds are best for longevity. The most rot resistant wood is cedar, but for less expensive wood, try hemlock or spruce, They can last more than 10 years before rotting. Avoid pressure treated woods. You can also use stone, brick or metal to build your beds.

Find a location that's perfect for the plants you'll grow. For vegetables and sun loving flowers, build a bed where it will get 6- to 8-hours of direct sun a day. For shade loving veggies and flowers, 3 to 4 hours of sun is fine. Build the bed close to a water source and somewhere where you'll walk by it every day to remember to water, weed, harvest and care for the bed.

You'll produce more flowers and food in a smaller space that is less likely to get run over by kids or dogs because it's raised up.

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When I was growing up near my Italian grandfather's farm in Waterbury, me and my cousins would often wander the field edges looking for wild blackberries. We would come home with scratches on our arms, purple juice stains on our clothes and smiles on our faces. They were that good.

Now, we don't have to work so hard to get delicious blackberries. With modern varieties, blackberries are disease free, produce fruit in summer and fall and some have thornless canes. To make life easier, start with purchasing thornless varieties. 'Chester' is a zone 5 variety with good flavor. 'Triple Crown' is a semi-erect variety, hardy to zone 6. 'Prime Ark Freedom' combines summer and fall fruiting with thornless canes. For colder areas, try the summer fruiting, thorny variety 'Illini Hardy'.

Plant blackberries in full to part sun, 3 to 4 feet apart in rows spaced 2 feet apart. Soak the roots and plant in compost amended soil. If you have clay soil, raise the beds by bringing in additional compost and topsoil. Mulch with wood chips to keep weeds away and preserve the soil moisture. Most blackberries will need support so the canes don't flop. Run a 5 foot high wire between two metal or wooden stakes at the ends of the row.

Prune blackberries after they've fruited in summer to remove old canes. In early summer, prune the shoots back by 1 foot to force side branching and more fruiting. For fall bearing varieties, you can also mow down the whole row in fall after fruiting. You'll lose the next summer's crop, but you'll have a bigger fall crop.

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Everyone knows the orange tawny daylilies growing on the roadsides or in meadows. They seem to be everywhere in early summer, but their show is brief. Also, many gardeners have some hand me down and some older varieties, such as 'Stella D' Oro' and 'Lemon Lily', in their gardens. But if you're just growing these older varieties you're missing out on some newer daylily types with better flowering habits.

Hemerocallis or daylilies are tough perennials that can grow in a variety of different soils and in part to full sun. New varieties have higher bud counts on sturdier scapes, rebloom more consistently, and have a wider range of colors with thicker petals that hold up better during summer rains. Many of these new varieties have at least two colors on the petals and picotee, ruffled edges. Some new varieties that are good replacements for existing varieties include 'Buttered Popcorn' instead of 'Hyperion'. Both have large yellow flowers, but 'Buttered Popcorn' produces more flowers, longer into the summer and reblooms. 'Going Bananas' is a good replacement for 'Happy Returns'. It reblooms more consistently throughout the hot summer from July until frost with larger flowers. 'Bright Sunset' is a good replacement for 'Frans Hals' because it has bigger flowers with a fragrance. Plus, there are new varieties, such as 'Siloam Peony Display', that have apricot colored, double flowers that really look like small peony blooms.

Give these new varieties a try but don't necessarily throw out the old types. They still have beauty and if all else fails, remember daylily flowers are edible and delicious in salads or stuffed like squash blossoms.

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I have to admit, when I first started vegetable gardening I wasn't a big beet fan. Beets were not a regular vegetable in my Italian-American household growing up, so they became an acquired taste over the years. Now I love them, especially roasted with other root crops.

Beets have large seeds that are easy to plant and grow quickly in cool soils. The seeds are actually dried fruits, so you can get 2 to 3 seedlings per seed. Thin seedlings to get a good root crop. Plus, the greens are delicious in salads or sautés.

Beets aren't just those red ball-shaped roots in grocery stores. There are cylindrical-shaped varieties, red and white striped varieties such as 'Chioggia', and 'Mini beets' with small roots. If you don't like the staining of the juice from red beets, try growing yellow or white varieties.

Broadcast beets seeds now on raised beds in composted amended soil. Thin the seedlings to 4 inches apart. Remember to save the thinnings for eating. Harvest the roots starting when they are golf ball sized. If left too long in the ground the roots can become woody. We grow 'Lutz Winter Keeper' because it's a long season beet that doesn't get woody when large. If you love beet greens, try 'Bulls Blood' for its red leaves.

Also, don't just think of beets as a spring plant. Sow seeds again in August for a fall harvest. Beets, like many vegetables, get sweeter with cool weather in fall and can take a frost. Cover beets with a row cover and you can harvest them right into the holidays.

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Most times it's better to work with nature than against it. Take shade for example. I often field questions for what to plant in a mossy, shady spot under trees. My answer is moss.

We are blessed in New England with mostly cool, moist, weather conditions. As we all know, moss grows well in those conditions covering the ground, rocks, stone walls and old tree stumps. So, why work against Mother Nature? Moss makes a perfect no mow ground cover, spreads on its own and looks beautiful 12 months of the year.

Start in a mostly shaded area with a little dappled light, slightly acidic well-drained soil, and good moisture. There's a wide variety of moss types. Sheet or carpet moss is fast growing spreading along the ground and over rocks creating a lawn of moss. Tree moss grows taller at 4- to 6-inches high. Cushion moss likes sandy soil and fern moss grows well on wet slopes. Check with local garden centers or online for the best moss choices.

Once planted, keep it well watered and it will start spreading. For those with more patience, you can try to spread the native mosses yourself. Make a moss milkshake by taking a small handful of native moss, 1 cup of buttermilk and enough water to make a slurry. Blend it up and “paint” this mixture on rocks and branches in the forest and even clay pots and bricks. Water the moss mixture regularly and move the pots and bricks into a shady spot until established. Not everyone has success with moss milkshakes, but it might be fun to try.

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