A GARDEN PEST OF HUMANS
Yellowjacket Frenemies
Not all garden pests attack plants. One pest, not of plants, that especially bugs me around this time most years is yellowjackets. Yellowjackets can be worse than irksome; they can be deadly to people allergic to their sting.
Whether deadly or just irksome, yellowjackets are amongst the orneriest of creatures. They are aggressive and, unlike honeybees, don’t have to stop after one sting. Burying its stinger in your arm has no effect on a yellowjacket’s mortality, so it can do it again if it so pleases or go on to seek out other victims.
As with all of Mother Nature’s creatures, yellowjackets are not all bad — even from the biased viewpoint of us humans. Read more
FIG SEASON
(This post is adapted from my book Growing Figs in Cold Climates)
Figs for All
For cold-climate fig growers, the harvest season is upon us. (Fig growers in warmer climates have been harvesting fresh figs for weeks.) But even here in the north, the harvest could continue for weeks to come since the so-called “main crop” fig fruits keep forming and ripening as long as the weather and sunlight keeps stems growing.
Some people might say, “Why go through the trouble of caring for a fig plant when you could buy fresh figs in the market? The fragile skin and the perishability of the fresh fruit doesn’t lend itself to commercial handling, which is why commercial figs, when you do find them in the market, have been harvested while still underripe and firm.” Then the claim could be, “Just let those market fruits sit out for a few days to sweeten up.” Nix on that also. A fig fruit will not further ripen once harvested. It might soften and sweeten a bit, but what’s taking place is more incipient rot — microorganisms degrading cell walls and changing starches to sugars — than ripening.
In fact, caring for a fig tree is very little trouble. Even in cold climates, where special techniques are needed for this subtropical plant. Fig plants are relatively pest-free. And, they can be grown in pots, even small ones, although the larger the pot the larger the harvest. Their main requirement is to bathe in six or more hours of daily summer sunshine. Read more
A WILD AND CULTIVATED BALM
Taming a Wild One
Bee-balm is one of those plants I once long admired in the wild and contemplated planting in my garden. Especially in midsummer when these flowers brighten the dappled shade of woodland borders and paint meadows with their pale lavender heads, perched high atop four-foot stems.
The plants’ desire to spread put me off planting them. Not that they’re an invasive plant in the general sense, but in a well managed garden they do require regular attention. Read more
