Master Gardeners – Fruition

July 8, 2024Jennifer Lerner and Joellen Lampman

Easy Climate-Smart Lawns

Did you know there are some easy climate-smart ways you can make your lawn attractive while improving the benefit to the broader landscape? Turns out less-is-more when it comes to lawncare. Read on for the most important approaches to achieve a resilient, healthy lawn that gives back by providing ecosystem services for humans and other creatures.

Mow Higher. Mow Less.

Turns out grass knows how to grow, but we could use some tips on how to mow and fertilize it a little better. Lawn research has shown that grass grows better when we mow it higher and when we remove only one third of the grass blade height at a time.

To give an example, imagine you go away on a May vacation for a week and don’t get to mow your lawn until the following weekend. It’s been growing for two weeks during a month when grass growth is usually very fast. You grab your trusty mower, set it to a 2-inch mowing height, and leave behind a swath of heavy (smothering) grass clippings and a scalped lawn. After you rake up the wet lumps of heavy clippings, you might notice that you are looking at yellow growth that was previously protected from the sun by the grass blades you just mowed off… not a pretty sight. But what you can’t see is worse—cutting off more than 1/3^rd of the grass blade stunts root growth.

Now imagine your trusty mower is set as high as it can go—with the blade about 3.5 inches from the ground. This should ideally allow you to cut off just one third of the grass height, like a trim rather than a crew cut. You might have to come back to it in a week, but the grass would thank you by continuing to grow healthy blades and thick roots.

Why do we aim to cut the grass no shorter than 3.5 inches, or as high as the blades can go? Taller grass grows deeper roots. Deep roots make the lawn more resilient during drought, and taller grass outcompetes weeds. Mowing higher also reduces the frequency of mowing by 20-25% and that saves time, fuel, and wear and tear on equipment. So set your mower to its highest setting.

Does mowing less often sound good to you? Plan your mowing around grass growth rather than on the calendar. When grass is growing fast you may have to mow weekly. But as the season gets hotter or rain is less frequent, you can mow less often. Stick to the one third mowing rule and wait until the grass grows high enough to mow. In the hot months of summer that period can be several weeks between mowing. If you are worried about your lawn having occasional tall stems or weeds, try string trimming around the edges to keep things looking neat between those longer mowing intervals. Read more Easy Climate-Smart Lawns

May 30, 2024Mary Robinson

Mary’s indoor gardens

While I’ve lived for decades in northern NY, during COVID my daughters felt that I should not be alone, so I lived with my family in Connecticut for eight months. My children knew I couldn’t give up growing plants so they ordered me an Aerogarden, and my indoor gardening adventure began! My daughter-in-law loved it too and bought one for herself. Once I returned home, I ordered another one… That was the beginning of really being addicted. I have one at the entrance to my kitchen for lettuce and cherry tomatoes (pictured above). People come in and break off a piece of lettuce for a snack. I do that now, too. It grows enough for my salads all winter.

Aerogardens are essentially hydroponic gardens, and are simple to set up and use. They can be used to start seedlings for transplanting in grow boxes or outside. The pods to start seeds fit in small cavities and can be covered. Normally they are set up to get sixteen hours of light per day. They need liquid fertilizer every two weeks and tend to grow to transplanting size more quickly than conventional plantings. The light can be raised as the plants grow, so a few smaller plants can be left in the Aerogarden to mature. Read more Mary’s indoor gardens

April 30, 2024Ken Kogut

Beneficial Nematodes: Holy Grail of Organic Pest Control?

One of the most difficult things for me to deal with as an organic gardener is how to control insect pests in my garden and small orchard. There are times that none of the organic controls that I implement do a very good job in controlling insect damage. The two insect culprits I find the most difficult to control are striped cucumber beetles and squash vine borers, both of which feed on plants in the curcurbit family which includes squash, melons, pumpkins, and zucchini. I’d like to share a bit more about these insects and then about how I’m using beneficial nematodes to control their population in my garden.

Cucumber beetles have evolved to perfectly time their emergence from the soil to coincide with the time cucumber seeds germinate and pop out of the ground. The first generation of beetles overwinter in the soil, undergo pupation, and then emerge as adults. Their first order of business is to attack the new cucumber plant’s first two leaves (called cotyledons) and then any new leaves and stems that have grown. Adult feeding can set back plant growth and may at times even kill the plant altogether. Adult beetles will then breed and females lay their eggs on the soil at the base of the plant. Eggs hatch in a few weeks and larvae burrow into the soil to begin feeding on roots and parts of the plant stem underground.

And that’s just the first generation of beetles! If you’re lucky enough that your plants survive the initial round of attack and are thriving under the June sun, a second generation of beetle larvae are busily consuming roots and maturing in the soil. About 40 days after hatching, the new brood of adult beetles will emerge to feed heavily on the flowers, leaves, and vines of your plants. This second generation of beetles will not only set back plant growth and fruiting, but may also introduce bacterial wilt into the plants. Bacterial wilt closes off the transport of water up the stems and to the developing fruit, causing the plant to wilt and die over just a few days. Eggs are again laid on the soil surface, they hatch, and larvae dig into the soil looking for roots to feed on. These larvae will overwinter in the soil to emerge the following spring as adults. Read more Beneficial Nematodes: Holy Grail of Organic Pest Control?