Your Maine Garden
A couple of readers have asked why broccoli from the summer garden often has a rank odor.
A miserable little insect called the tarnished plant bug — less than a 1/4 inch long, olive drab, shaped something like a shelled sunflower seed — is to blame. It pierces the developing florets while feeding and introduces bacterial contamination. As the bacteria multiply, so does the odor.
Tarnished plant bugs feed on a very wide range of plants and are quite difficult to control. One could try growing summer broccoli under a floating row cover (Ree-may or its equivalent) to exclude the bugs. Early and late crops seem less affected by the bug/bacteria complex. I’ve about given up on broccoli in my own garden because of this problem.
A Bar Harbor reader followed up my recent column on unusual geraniums with a request for other sources of geraniums that aren’t as expensive as those from Shady Hill Gardens in Batavia IL.
The other source I gave, Merry Gardens (P.O. Box 595, Camden, Maine 04843) publishes a mail order list of their geraniums and other plants. Send them a dollar for this list, which briefly describes many of the cultivars, or visit them in person to be sure you are getting what you want.
A Millinocket reader wants to know why her lilac planted in the woods at camp won’t bloom. She limed the soil and even tried planting a companion lilac in case there were some requirement for male and female plants.
Lack of sun is the most common cause of failure to bloom in lilacs. Liming the soil is important and it should be done thoroughly at planting time by digging in one to two cups per square yard as deeply as possible. Lime a good sized circle of at least four feet in diameter. Control grass and weeds around the base of the lilac with a permanent mulch of leaves, grass clippings or sludge.
There is no requirement for companion plants in lilac. Quite a few woody plants do have such a requirement, holly for instance, but this would not prevent them from blooming, only from setting fruit.
A Harborside gardener planted a horse chestnut 20-25 years ago, and it is only 6 feet tall today, never blossoming, although quite healthy looking.
This sounds like a genetic dwarf (a runt, like Wilbur the pig in E.B. White’s tale) to me, and may actually have some horticultural value, if it can be propagated by cuttings. The lack of blooms is unfortunate, but it also means no messy nuts and husks to clean up.
A Woodland reader has had very poor luck all along with annuals. She buys them in blossom and they quickly lose their color and never regain it. She wants to know if they should they be planted in full sun rather than in shade.
Most annuals need lots of sun to keep blooming. For a shady garden, choose impatiens, wax begonias, coleus, lobelia, nicotiana and tuberous begonias.
An Orono reader wants a follow up on giving Martha Washington geraniums a chilling period to induce flowering.
Night temperatures above 60 degrees cause flower buds to abort in this tricky species. The homeowner would need to find some place in the house where there is bright sun and cool — not frosty — nights. At least 30 days of such treatment will be needed to insure reblooming, and there is the danger that a properly induced Martha will still drop its flower buds if brought into a too warm house.
A Carmel gardener is struggling with a multi-year outbreak of chickweed stemming from a load of cow manure she brought in a while back.
There is no easy solution to chick weed, which seeds itself readily and grows vigorously in all but the snowiest of weather. When the garden is empty of vegetable plants, try spraying the chickweed with glyphosate herbicide (Round-up). Follow label directions carefully. Several applications may be necessary. Seedlings will reappear for one or more years; these must not be allowed to go to seed, if you are going to rid your garden of this scourge.
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