Keeping Plants Alive in Hot, Dry Weather

This is the second draft of my column on watering. I tossed out the first one a few days after writing it. I could tell the minute it was finished that something was wrong, so I didn’t turn it in right away. I’m glad I did that because after lugging the hose around for another spell of hot, dry days, I realized what the problem was—my advice was a bunch of bull! Why? I think my attempt to offer up normal-world suggestions about watering during the summer of 2018 which, to me, has felt like a non-stop onslaught of diseases, bugs, rain, heat, wind, heat, humidity, heat, dryness, heat, dryness and more dryness, is about as helpful as my applying a Band-Aid to a torn-off arm stump.

As a trained Master Gardener and longtime horticulture writer, I am used to answering questions and offering suggestions based on time-tested research. I’m usually fine with that, except when the research seems questionable because it feels like someone who has never gardened in their life came up with the results. Or, the study was funded by Bayer/Monsanto or some other entity with a vested interest in saying something crappy is actually great and totally safe.

Perennials like golden rod help sustain pollinators later in the season.

But now there’s something new to chew on: We are living in uncharted, extraordinary times. As our planet warms, and we try to garden in increasingly unusual and erratic conditions, it seems only logical that the research we rely on needs to evolve to.  In some ways, I’d say we’re just winging it out there. So, while it’s a good idea for gardeners to be aware of the commonly advised watering know-how, I think we also need to rely on our common sense and do what we can for our gardens, the earth and our spirits. (Please don’t email to say natives will solve all of these problems. They won’t.)

Here is some of the main oft-heard, research-based watering advice:

  • Water in the early morning or evening when temperatures are cooler to reduce evaporation.
  • In general, lawns and established perennials, trees and shrubs need about 1 – 2 inches of water per week, including rainfall.
  • Don’t use sprinklers because overhead watering can lead to diseases that favor wet leaves.
  • Don’t spritz things with the hose because those little sips of water don’t encourage plants to establish strong root systems they can depend on.
  • Water established lawns, trees, shrubs and perennials only about once per week to give soil time to dry out in between waterings. This will motivate plants to develop stronger, deeper root system that the plants can rely on in dry times.
  • Water newly planted things frequently for the first two or three years as they establish root systems.
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Basil, Basil, Basil!

I sometimes think that when I’m older, I’ll live in a condo or apartment so I can do other things besides tend a huge garden, like finally go kayaking or maybe relearn all that Spanish I once knew, but have long ago forgotten. I would miss gardening, but I think I would be all right as long as I could grow Sweet Genovese basil somewhere. I grow a lot of herbs, but none give me the same life-is-good feeling I get when I go out and snip a few basil leaves for an omelette or pizza. Lots of other people feel the same way, I know, because when something goes wrong with basil, they really freak out. And who can blame them? Minnesota summers are short, so if the basil you’ve been lovingly tending goes south, that’s it for the year. So here comes the good and bad news—bad news first so you won’t go away droopy.

Genovese basil used to thrive until fall before basil downy mildew came along.

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of this question: “My basil was doing so great, and then it turned all yellow and got brown spots all over it. What happened?” If this is happening at your house too, the problem is probably basil downy mildew. Caused by a water mold that thrives in warm, humid conditions, this basil-ruining mildew was first found in Minnesota in 2012 and has been making homemade pesto nearly impossible ever since.

Other issues can resemble basil downy mildew, but if you see plant leaves turn yellow, get brown and/or black spots and maybe even start falling off, you can pretty much bet that’s what you’re dealing with. Once a plant is infected, pluck off any leaves that still look decent and chuck the rest in your yard waste can or bag. Because the pathogen that causes this disease can’t survive our Minnesota winters, it is safe to throw it in your compost bin if you have one. Just be sure to bury it a bit because spores can blow to nearby plants.

Before the brown spots appear, plants just look a bit yellow, which can be mistaken for nutrient deficiency.

One of the best ways to avoid this disease next year is to buy basil seedlings and/or seeds from someone you trust to manage their plants well. Too often, plants and seeds are already infected with basil downy mildew when we buy them: it just hasn’t started to show yet. I like to buy my basil seedlings, and other vegetable and herb plants, from Dehn’s Garden. The family-owned farm has been a regular at the Minneapolis Farmers Market for more than 30 years and I have never had a problem with basil I’ve bought from them. (This isn’t to say that it couldn’t happen, though, because spores can still blow around and infect plants.)

While we can’t do much about what the wind drags in, there are some things gardeners can do to try to keep basil downy mildew at bay. Rather than using an overhead sprinkler or sprayer, water the soil beneath basil plants by hand to help keep leaves dry. Also, make sure plants have good airflow around them by thinning out overcrowded beds and containers and keeping weeds pulled. Better still, do as I do and plant way more basil than you’ll ever need. That way, if some plants get infected, you’ll still have plenty more. If all of them do well and stay healthy, you can make pesto for everybody and they will love you!

Tasty Pesto Recipe

Well, it’s definitely good news that you don’t need a lot of basil to make a delicious batch of pesto. So feel free to adjust this recipe according to the amount of leaves you’ve gathered up.

  • 2 cups fresh basil leaves (I like Sweet Genovese.)
  • 3 cloves fresh garlic
  • ¼ cup pine nuts or walnuts (optional)
  • ¾ cup organic, extra-virgin olive oil
  • ½ tsp salt and ¼ to ½ tsp pepper
  • ½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Combine basil, garlic, nuts, salt and pepper and HALF of the olive oil in a food processor or blender. Blend on a low speed as you add the rest of the oil. Scoop the mixture out into a large bowl and stir in the grated cheese. And, voilà! Pesto is best eaten the same day it’s made, and it will turn brown if left exposed to air very long. If you decide to freeze some, I find it works best to leave out the cheese, which you can add when you thaw out your pesto for a meal. Enjoy.

 

A Happy Ending for Baby Snapping Turtles

Nature is wondrous, but it can also be very cruel. Spend 10 minutes watching a David Attenborough show and some poor, hapless creature is bound to become engaged in a life-or-death struggle and end up maimed or eaten. My husband, Mike, has stopped watching nature shows because his tender heart can’t take it. I agree, with the exception of programs by Attenborough. That charming British naturalist may be 92, but his curious, inquisitive, downright gleeful approach to nature never fails to enchant me. (Here he is narrating the intro to “the lesser-spotted” Adele’s Hello as only he can.)

Snapping turtle laying eggs on Lake Harriet’s North Beach.

Knowing that backstory, you’ll understand how the first words out of Mike’s mouth were, “Oh no. Don’t look,” when we ran into a large crowd staring out at the water on the north end of Lake Harriet the other day. I looked. And there on the sandy beach were three medium-sized brown snapping turtles, side by side in a line. Necks arched upward, feet splayed out, the turtles were nearly motionless, each in a shallow hole not much bigger than they were. “They’re laying eggs,” a woman next to us whispered. Everyone was whispering, like people used to do in libraries and museums.

I know most turtles in Minnesota lay their eggs in June, but I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing them actually doing it. How amazing nature is, all those mama turtles coming up on the beach to lay their precious eggs. Out in the lake, the heads of more egg-heavy turtles were visible as they bobbed up and down in the water, probably thinking, “Well, what the hell. Those rude humans haven’t the sense to avert their eyes during this intimate moment in our lives, but this is as good a place as any to have these babies, so let’s get to it.”

A cute baby snapping turtle.

But they were wrong. As heartwarming as that whole live nature show was, anyone there could see that burying eggs in the sand in the middle of a busy swimming beach was not a good plan. I watched for several minutes before realizing Mike was off talking with the lifeguards, who were taking the whole scene in from their nearby perch. My kindhearted husband wanted to know what happens next, and this is where our nature program took a grim turn. Snapping turtles lay eggs on this beach every year, a young lifeguard explained. And every year, once those mama turtles slide back into the water, the eggs they so carefully laid are quickly gobbled up by dogs, raccoons, foxes and other critters. Those that somehow manage to go uneaten are often crushed or otherwise destroyed by people who have no idea that baby turtle eggs are just beneath the sand.

They don’t always pick the best spot to lay eggs. —iStock

Surely something can be done to keep this horrible situation from happening every summer? Mike pressed. The lifeguard shrugged his thin shoulders: Calls had been made in the past, he said, but with few exceptions, it seemed like nothing was being done to relocate or otherwise protect the eggs from harm. We walked home wondering how this could be so. It seems like efforts are made to protect all sorts of things all the time. Where are the experts? Where are the naturalists? Snapping turtles are not an endangered species. Is that enough to make rescue efforts a no-go? One thing is for certain; those mama turtles will not be helping out. Reading up on Minnesota turtles, I learned that female turtles are done with the whole mom thing once they lay their eggs. They never come back and check on them. They don’t reunite with their offspring out in the lake one day. They lay their eggs and they are Out. Of. There.

That means, if this nature program is going to have a happier ending next year, it is up to us humans to make that happen. But what do we do? So far, I’ve learned that snapping turtles usually lay 25 to 80 eggs at one time and, depending on the weather, it can take two to three months, or even longer, for some eggs to hatch. I have no idea how many turtles laid their eggs on that beach, but you’ve got to figure that hundreds were buried there. Could they be moved to a safer spot? Would it be better to have a bunch of folks take some eggs home and put them in a homemade incubator or something? Is it crazy to think that next summer, when those mama turtles come out of the lake to lay their eggs, some of us could be there, ready to help keep their babies safe? That’s the kind of nature program I’d like to see.

Good Bug, Bad Bug

Normally I enjoy gardening in the spring. But after reading seemingly endless headlines about spewing lava, flash floods and gaping sink holes while enduring our freak May blizzard followed by our freak May heat wave, I can’t enjoy myself because I keep wonder whether I’m acting like one of those stalwart band members on the deck of the sinking Titanic. ‘La, la, la … I’m pretty sure the world is coming to an end, but I think I’ll just plant these zinnias and cut back all my pretty shade plants that burned to a crisp in the boiling hot May sun … la, la, la.’

Dragonflies hold their wings flat and parallel to the ground.

It helped that while I worked I was often able to watch dragonflies. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a lot of dragonflies in the yard, so I’m glad to see them back. I read up on dragonflies during their last visit and learned, among many other things, that I have been calling some insects dragonflies when they are actually damselflies. Both aquatic insects belong to the same order, Odonata, but if you look closely you’ll see that damselflies have slimmer bodies and their eyes are separated and somewhat protruding rather than flat and centered on their heads.

 

Damselflies hold their wings like butterflies do.

To easily tell the two apart, look at their wings when they are at rest. Dragonflies rest with their wings flat and parallel to the ground while damselflies hold their wings pressed together over their backs, like butterflies do. To learn more about these magical insects, go to the Minnesota Dragonfly Society’s site where you’ll find information on some of the 140 species that can be found in Minnesota. Nerd out more by getting yourself a nice dragonfly identification guide like Stokes Beginner’s Guide to Dragonflies by Blair Nikula, Jackie Sones and Donald and Lillian Stokes.

 

Bad Bugs—Japanese Beetles

Yes, in just over a month Japanese beetles will arrive and dive head first into having sex on our plants while also eating them and crapping all over the place during their god-forsaken 60-day life cycle. What can be done? I’ve said it before, but I want to say it again because people always ask about how to treat Japanese beetles: I don’t like to use chemicals to kill them or anything else. I just pluck (wear gloves) the gross beetles off of plants and toss them into a bucket of soapy water to DIE. If, however, you are thinking of  trying to kill Japanese beetles with insecticides, University of Minnesota Extension Entomologist Jeff Hahn recently sent out an update letting people know that it is too late to do that this season because those suckers are already way too big to be affected by our puny chemical concoctions. You can get a jump on murdering next year’s beetle crop, though, if you apply insecticides to turfgrass from July through mid-September because that’s when females are laying fresh eggs.

Japanese beetles are hell bent on world domination.

But, before reaching for an insecticide, Hahn suggests that we ask ourselves why that seems like the answer. The reason: If grubs are destroying your lawn (usually large patches of yellow/brown grass but that can also be other things), and a good-looking lawn is important to you, then perhaps chemicals can help. If your aim, though, is to reduce the number of beetles having wild sex on your plants and just generally defiling your garden in innumerable ways, think again, because those monsters can fly a long way so treating your small patch of land will do zip.

And one more thing, if you do choose to use chemicals to kill Japanese beetles, please do some Googling to see what the preventative insecticides Hahn suggests (chlorantraniliprole, halofenizide, imidacloprid and chlothianidin) may also harm. I don’t know anything about most of these, but I can tell you that imidacloprid is a neonic and neonics harm bees, dragonflies and other insects.

Japanese beetles are no match for soapy water.

I’m explaining all of this, not because I want to shame people who feel they need to treat a problem. Rather, I think it is far too common for experts to tell people what they can use to treat this or that problem, but they don’t also explain how those treatments might affect other living creatures and/or the planet. In my experience, when I give people ALL of that information, they often decide using chemicals isn’t worth it. But even when they don’t, at least they had all of the tools they needed to make an informed choice. And who wouldn’t want that?

Get Tickets Now for Lakewood’s Behind-the-Scenes Greenhouse Tours

If you’ve never wandered the beautiful grounds of Minneapolis’ Lakewood Cemetery, Earth Day would probably not be a great day to start since our Minnesota winter is hanging on strong this year. Undeterred, Lakewood is celebrating Earth Day by inviting the public to come for a visit anytime between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on April 22, 2018. The big attraction of the day is the chance to tour Lakewood’s expansive greenhouses. Tickets are free but your spot needs to be reserved here. A $5 donation is appreciated and proceeds will go toward Lakewood’s Permanent Care and Improvement Fund.

 

Lakewood greenhouses are packed with flowers dreaming of spring. —Courtesy of Lakewood

Groundskeepers are busy tending thousands of flowers in the greenhouses right now in anticipation of spring, so even if it is still cold and snowy outside, the greenhouses will feel like paradise. After the tour, attendees will have a chance to pot up a plant to take home if they would like to.

Event Details
Space is limited so reserving your time slot is a good idea. Get your advance ticket now. Greenhouse tours are approximately 25-30 minutes long, and are offered between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The planting activity takes place in the greenhouse immediately following each tour.

  • Lakewood is located at 3600 Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis
  • Parking is available along roads inside the cemetery
  • This event is open to the public; all are welcome to visit the grounds during open hours from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (spring/summer visiting hours). Self-guided tour brochures of art and history at Lakewood will also be available; visitors can download Lakewood’s mobile app for more tour options.

About Lakewood: Situated just steps from Lake Calhoun, Lakewood has one of the country’s largest cemetery greenhouse operations. I’ve been to a few talks on Lakewood’s unique horticultural history so I could have explained some of that to you but, happily, they provided me with a very detailed press release to share, so what follows are interesting tidbits I’ve adapted from that.

Knot bed—Courtesy of Lakewood

The grounds, which are open to the public, include 250 acres of gardens that are home to beautifully designed containers and beds as well as old-growth trees and rare native plants. “Lakewood was designed in the ‘rural’ or ‘garden’ cemetery landscape movement popular in the late nineteenth century when Lakewood was founded,” says Lakewood president Ronald Gjerde, Jr. Because the park system was just getting started when Lakewood opened in 1871, the cemetery’s grounds were one of the first public green spaces in Minneapolis. Over the years, lessons learned in the cemetery gardens have helped shape the development of horticulture in Minnesota.

 

Garden Temple—Courtesy of Lakewood

In the early 1900s, Lakewood was the largest floral wholesaler west of Chicago. The cemetery housed and maintained six large greenhouses, each longer than a football field. One of the present day Lakewood greenhouses is the oldest standing and continually operating greenhouse in the state. The energy crisis of the 1970s forced many cemetery greenhouse operations across the country to close, but Lakewood continued operating by reducing the size and number of its greenhouses and switching to more efficient, sustainable options. To learn more about Lakewood’s greenhouse history, check out this video.

How to Help Bumble Bees

The plight of honeybees is well publicized. But you don’t hear much about other bees that need our help, and that’s too bad because many other kinds of bees are also disappearing fast. In this column, I’m hoping to raise awareness about what’s happening to bumble bees, particularly the rusty patched bumble bee. It’s not too late to help.

Rusty patched bumble bee—Xerces Society, by Johanna James-Heinz

Of the 48 bumble bee species in North America, several are considered to be in decline for a variety of reasons. But in December of 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was endangered because their numbers had declined by 87 percent over the past 20 years.

A happy bumble bee (not rusty patched) collecting pollen. —iStock

One of Minnesota’s declining bumble bee species, the rusty patched bumble bee was the first bee species in the continental U.S. to be declared endangered, but it probably won’t be the last. Minnesota is one of the few states where rusty patched bumble bees can still be found, and they are most commonly spotted in the Twin Cities area.

Reasons for the decline of bumble bees mirror those of other bees: pesticide use, climate change, habitat loss and disease have all seemingly contributed to their demise. The situation is dire, but there are positive things gardeners can do to help. A good place to start is to stop using pesticides, or at least limit their use. Next, if you have a big yard and can allow a small space or two to include a few little piles of leaves or brush, queen bumble bees will thank you for the nice places to nest.

Rusty patched bumble bee specimen in the National Collection at the Smithsonian.

Because bumble bees are out early in spring and are active before many plants are in bloom, consider adding some early-spring-flowering bulbs, perennials, shrubs and trees to your yard, like plums, hazelnut, witch hazel, willows, grape hyacinth, scilla (one of my favorite spring plants), snowdrops, crocus, hellebore and Virginia bluebells. Of course, there are many other plants that can be added to your gardens to help bumble bees and other pollinators too.

Unlike honeybees, bumble bees don’t have a lot of honey stored in their nests, so they depend on available flowers.The University of Minnesota’s bee lab has a lot of helpful information on bees on its website, including Plants for Minnesota Bees, which lists several flowering plants that bees like that are suited to most home landscapes. Remember to include plants that offer nectar and pollen because bees need both the protein from pollen and the carbohydrates from nectar to survive.

Rough blazingstar
—Courtesy of Prairie Nursery

In addition to planting bumble bee favorites like blueberries, tomatoes, borage, sage, oregano and thyme, here are some standouts to consider from the bee lab’s list, as well as other sources:

  • Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
  • Autumn joy sedum (Hylotelephium telephium)
  • Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa)
  • Catmint (Nepeta x fassenii)
  • Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum)
  • Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
  • Honeysuckle vine (Lonicera)
  • Ironweed (Vernonia fasiculata)
  • Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata)
  • Primroses (Primula vulgaris)
  • Rough blazingstar (Liatris aspera)
  • Sea holly (Eryngium maritimum)
  • Stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida)
  • Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum)

To learn more about bumble bees, including more information on why they are disappearing and what their needs are in terms of habitat, nesting and overwintering, have a look at this section of the Xerces Society’s website.

I’d also like to suggest two great books about pollinators by local authors: Pollinator Friendly Gardening by Rhonda Hayes and Pollinators of Native Plants by Heather Holm.

—A version of this story appeared in Northern Gardener magazine.

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Hi. My name is Meleah Maynard and I garden in crazy-ass cold, zone 4 Minneapolis, Minnesota. My book, co-authored with Jeff Gillman, Decoding Gardening Advice: The Science Behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations, was published by Timber Press. Click here to email Meleah.
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