The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

Our Balloon Flowers (Platycondon) always seem to get top heavy with flowers and fall over, so we took some time today to stake and tie them up.

While in the middle of tying the first stem, I felt a strange sensation on my finger that quickly turned to a sharp burning pain. I had felt this pain a few times in the past and knew what it was immediately… I had unknowingly brushed against a leaf of a stinging Nettle plant.

I was quickly reminded that,in that spot of the flower bed, I often find Stinging Nettle. Most years, I just put on some gloves and pull them out…that’s usually the end of them for the season. I just completely forgot about them.

Our Nettles have long, narrow leaves with fuzzy-looking small hairs all over the plant. It really just looks like a “generic” weed. I’ll tell you what, though, once you get introduced to it like that, you learn to recognize the subtle characteristics of the plant in a hurry.

The fuzzy hairs that you see are actually very small needles made out of pure glass! The needles are so thin, that when you brush against them, the tips break off and become very sharp (as broken glass tends to do), penetrate your skin and irritating chemicals are released, causing the pain and irritation.

(Take a close-up look at those needles by clicking here)

Fortunately, the worst of the pain is gone in about twenty minutes (I timed it). By the time a hour has passed, your skin just feels “tingly”. I must say that my hand stills feels a little “funny” 8 hours later.

I took this as an opportunity to educate my garden helpers about the perils of Stinging Nettle. Of course the first question asked was “how bad does it hurt?”. Trying to describe the sensation in words was just not working, so I invited them to try it for themselves. There were no takers until I rubbed a small spot on the back of my hand with a piece of nettle leaf. (I don’t advise this “hands on” approach to teaching, however). Still no takers… and these were the same guys who just a few weeks ago, were brave enough to chomp down on their first Habanero Pepper! Hmm… maybe they learned some thing from that experience.

Anyway, one did end up trying it on the back of his hand only because a friend of his from Kashmir told him about how parents use it in the old country to discipline their children… talk about differences in parenting techniques !

The Nettle is gone now but not forgotten.

Bob

This is the time of year for these guys, the Tomato Horn Worm:

Anyone who raises tomatoes will eventually have to deal with these pests.

I know some of you are chuckling to yourselves because you have already guessed the low tech solution to the tomato Horn Worm problem. We have, I don’t know… maybe 80 to100 tomato plants in our garden beds. We just use the old hunt, pick,and stomp method of worm control.

The caterpillars are sometimes hard to see because they are the same color of the tomato plant. So just check your plants for bare stems with no leaves.

When you see this, the Horn Worms are close by. Usually, they feed toward the top of the plant, but not always.

When you find them,just pick them off and stomp on them. They make a satisfying sound when stepped on that is just too difficult to describe in words.

If you are too squeamish to step on them, you can use a very high tech method employing specially bred bacteria to infect them with their own brand of the Black Plague.

The bacteria (Bacillus thurengensis or BT for short) is quite harmless to people and pets. Heck, it won’t even kill other bugs, but it is deadly to caterpillars of all kinds.

The mid-tech control is to just spray an insecticide to kill them. I never use that method, seems to me to be over-kill (yes, pun intended).

Sometimes, mother nature steps in and sends in her own worm killers, if you see a Horn Worm with small egg-shaped objects on its back, don’t kill it. These egg-shaped things are the pupal cocoons of the Braconid Wasp, a parasite of Horn Worms.

From each one of those cocoons another wasp will emerge. So, instead of one worm hunter, you now have dozens doing your dirty work. Ain’t nature grand?

photo: Clemson University

So if the Horn Worm is a caterpillar, it must turn into a moth or butterfly right? Yep, it turns into a type of “humming bird” moth (also known as a Sphinx moth). The Horn Worm moths only fly at night. There are other species of “humming bird” moths that fly during the day.

photo: W.S. Cranshaw

That’s the “skinny” on a fat worm. Good Hunting!
Bob

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed a decrease in the frequency of posts lately.

We have been having some computer problems here at home where we write our blog, so the postings have been sparse.

Thanks to our son, Joseph,we are now up and running once more!

So, please check back, we have a lot of fun things to share with you.

Bob

We have a flower bed that is right next to a concrete slab. It gets full sun all day and reflected sun from a white wall. It also does not get watered as much as it should.

Because of the hot, dry conditions, we had problems getting plants to grow there.

The solution to our problem was to plant sedum, in this case the variety “Dragon’s Blood”. It is a low growing (3″-4″ tall), sprawling plant that has reddish foliage, hence the name “Dragon’s Blood”.

As the branches grow, they tend to root themselves at that point. Once they are established, they can withstand very dry conditions.

As an additional bonus, they will also flower. Here is a photo I took last week of our Dragon’s Blood sedum blossoming:

As you can see, the sedum densely covers the space, effectively choking out any weeds. It’s a great plant for a difficult area.
Bob

Michigan is reaping the harvest from “globalization” once again. In addition to losing our Ash trees and automotive industry, we can now add to the list our pine trees.

On July 6th, an individual Sirex Woodwasp was collected from an insect trap in Macomb County. These pests were first found in New York back in 2004. Agricultural scientists have been monitoring their traps for this woodwasp ever since. They came into our country via wooden crates made with infested wood.

So it’s official, Michigan is now on the list of areas having this problem, joining New York, Pennsylvania and Ontario.

We have our own Woodwasps but they only attack weak and dying trees. The Sirex, on the other hand attacks all pine trees that have two or three needles per bud. These include Austrian, Jack, Red and Scotch Pines. Even the most vigorously growing trees are not immune to destruction.

Here is a photo of the culprit:

Photo: David R. Lance, USDA APHIS PPQ, Bugwood.org

The female uses its stinger to “sting” the tree and lay its eggs inside.
Sometimes the female dies after laying the eggs and can be found dead but still stuck to the bark:

Photo: Paula Klasmer, Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria, Bugwood.org

The eggs hatch and the larvae (worms) tunnel under the bark and kill the tree:

Photo: William M. Ciesla, Forest Health Management International, Bugwood.org

The oozing sap is a symptom of Sirex Woodwasp infestation…

Photo: Dennis Haugen, Bugwood.org

Let’s hope that our Agriculture officials are right and this pest will pose no threat to our forest industry.

Bob