Fact Sheet Twenty Nine
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THE GARDENERS DIARY
WEEK 29
17th April 2005
THE DIARY THE FLOWER GARDEN: Protect young foliage. With the temperature dropping to almost freezing recently, you may need to protect the young foliage and flower buds of various shrubs, trees, herbaceous plants, annuals and vegetables. Protect your prize plants with some horticultural fleece. Cover them in the evening if the weather forecast gives threats of ground frost or if the sky is clear and the temperature is cool.
THE GREENHOUSE: Start to harden off summer bedding plants.
Half-hardy annuals which are going to be used in your summer bedding schemes need to be placed outside on mild days to acclimatise them to outdoor conditions though remember to fetch them back into the greenhouse in the evening or if the weather turns cold through the day.
FRUIT & VEG: Start a spray program against American Mildew.
Gooseberries can suffer with a terrible form of mildew. This form can hamper the foliage and crop of your plants. It covers the foliage gets covered in a white mould which if left can turn to brown. It is caused by overcrowding and over feeding with high nitrogen feeds.
To combat this severe strain of mildew, start a spray program using a fungicide. Spray with traditional copper fungicide every two weeks. This will hopefully stop the disease. Another idea is to give your plants plenty of spacing and plant them on an airy, open site.
LAWN CARE: Dig out patches of coarse grass.
Whilst working on the lawn you may come across areas of coarse grass. These can make the lawn look uneven and can cause problems with mowing. These patches of weed grasses need to be removed as they can be susceptible to drought and disease. If left they can cause problems later on in the lawns life. These patches should be dug out, filled in with some sieved top soil. Add some general purpose fertiliser and then fill with either some fresh turf or some grass seed.
PEST PROBLEM OF THE WEEK: Western Flower Thrips on African Violets. If you have noticed a kind of silver dandruff-type powder on and around the petal areas, then this could be an attack of Western Flower Thrips. These tiny insects cause a flecking on the flowers and leaves. Heavy infestations can cause rapid deterioration in the blooms and thus failure of buds opening. Adult Thrips will grow to around 2mm in length and are elongated in shape. The immature nymphs are what mainly cause the dusting effect. On other plants which suffer with this pest spraying with a pesticide is the answer but with hairy plants like African Violets water can mark the leaves so spraying can be difficult. Other than throwing your prize plants away the only other way to control this troublesome pest is to use some plant pins. These are small cardboard pins which contain systemic insecticide. These are inserted into the compost and then the insecticide is released and taken up by the roots. Another treatment which you could also try is Provado which is watered into the compost of the plant and will also act in the same way.
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