Design trends

IPM in Your Garden

Gartenmeister fuchsia is one of the disease resistant varieties.

I go out into my little garden and look around daily to enjoy the early spring bloomers. But what’s this? Some of the hellebores are covered with aphids. When did they hatch? Another gardener told me recently that her rhododendrons are battling an early thrip hatch. Whether you’re seeing some of these same problems in your garden or have different issues that you don’t know how to handle, here are some tips to help you decide what you can live with and what you can’t.

Integrated pest management or IPM is a fancy name for common sense. By planting the right plant in the right place you can prevent most pest infestation. Pick your battles.Take action against insects only when they pose a significant threat to your plant.

Plants can usually survive with a little bug damage. Insects that are natural predators often will eventually arrive and handle your bug problem. Picking them off by hand or spraying them off with water often works, too. Some vegetable plants may need to be protected with insect barriers or row covers. Simple traps for earwigs, slugs and snails are effective, too. Vacuuming is another method of controlling pests. Tilling the soil often disrupts the breeding cycle of insects like the rose slug. Encourage beneficial insects to visit your garden by planting a variety of plants. Use natural biological insecticides like BT and nematodes that have minimal environmental impact.

If you feel you must spray for soft bodied insects like mites, choose insecticidal soap. This may sound strange but by not killing all the pests there will be some left in the gene pool that are not resistant to the organic or chemical sprays. Those left will dilute any resistant genes that appear.

Regular monitoring is the cornerstone of IPM. This is where that daily walk in your garden with a beverage comes in. You can see if a problem is getting out of control or not.

The fuchsia gall mite is one problem that I keep tabs on or the hummingbirds aren’t happy. If your fuchsias aren’t blooming and the leaf tips look curled up and deformed, your plants are infested with fuchsia gall mite. First discovered on the West Coast in 1980 it is often mistaken for a disease because of the way it distorts and twists fuchsia leaves and flower buds. The damage caused can be debilitating. The leaves curl and distort so much that normal photosynthesis is disrupted and weakened plants fail to bloom Infested plants usually recover if further mite damage is controlled.

Prune off all distorted foliage and buds. This may be the best method of control as petroleum oil or insecticidal sprays need to be made every 4-7 days to disrupt the mite life cycle and will result in the mites becoming resistant. Neem oil is not recommended for use on fuchsia flowers.

There are several gall mite-resistant fuchsias, both hanging and upright, that are very bit as showy as the traditional fuchsia varieties. if you have been plagued by fuchsia mites, try growing one of these instead. I’m enjoying my Gartenmeister fuchsia.

If you have a problem in your garden and don’t know what to do, feel free to email me. I’m always happy to help a fellow gardener.

Design trends

Celebrate Earth Day 2026

My friend, Grace, in “her” Strawberry Tree

The theme for Earth Day 2026 (April 22) is “Our Power, Our Planet” , emphasizing the importance of collective action, renewable energy and standing together to protect the environment.

Earth day is a day of education about environmental issues. Celebrate it in your own backyard by being outside. It’s your own personal outdoor living room – a safe place for pets and kids to play. Just get outside, maybe trim some shrubs, plant something for the birds and pollinators. When you become a steward of your own yard, you are helping to preserve your own corner of the ecosystem. Our connection to the earth is one of the most valuable lessons we can share with our children.

For Earth Day 2026, kids can improve renewable resources by reducing waste, conserving energy and water and enjoying nature by planting trees or participating in cleanups, all while learning about the environment and inspiring others.

We can reduce waste by avoiding single-use plastics, bringing reusable containers for lunch and choosing products with less packaging. You can find creative ways to repurpose old materials like Turning old magazines into art.

This sounds simple, but recycle properly, ensuring that all your recyclable materials are sorted and placed in the correct bins. Save energy and water where ever you can.

Engage in nature-based activities like planting trees in your yard. Clean up littler where ever you find it. Go for walks in parks or nature trails and learn about the plants and animals that live there. Make a nature-based craft like a bird feeder or bee hotel.

Finding things to do in the garden is easy. You probably already have some edible flowers in your garden. Flowers like tuberous begonias, calendulas, carnations and marigolds are all edible. Last year Grace & I planted zinnias for the Swallowtail butterflies. This year will be cosmos to attract more butterflies. Fragrant flowers and herbs are fun for us to smell. She noticed that some of the yellow primroses were fragrant and I have lemon verbena, peppermint, spearmint to enjoy also.

And make sure you take photos of everything you discover in nature and share them with others to show the beauty of our planet.

To share one’s excitement and knowledge of the outdoor world with a child is fun and rewarding. The wonder on a young person’s face as they discover a swallowtail butterfly, a flower just starting to open or a bird feeding in the garden is priceless. And be sure to leave some time after a busy day out in the garden for kids to draw what they’ve enjoyed outside.

Get a kid into gardening and nature and they’ll be good stewards of the land for a lifetime. Plus you’ll have a lot of fun in the process.

So plant a tree, clean up litter, do something in the garden, hike in the woods, enjoy a walk among the wildflowers and just be in contact with the soil, breathe fresh air and think about ways to promote our renewable resources.

Design trends

Veggies in the Shade

Hopefully my Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes will look like this by mid -summer and ripen by dummer’s end.

Being the type who doesn’t take no for an answer, I’m going to try growing veggies on my shady deck again. I wasn’t very successful a couple years ago. I thought that 3 hours hot midday sun would be enough for green beans but alas, it was not. That is unless you consider 12 delicious green beans over the course of the growing season a success. So maybe green beans is not the answer. This year I’m going to stick with those I know will deliver for me. No sense wasting valuable space on my deck for edibles when I could grow perennials that the hummingbirds would love. Now that I think about it, I’ll grow both.

Early season veggie starts have arrived at the nurseries plus I see lots of good choices from Renee’s Garden Seeds.

Shade tolerant vegetables for your brightest spots – the partial shade areas – include beans, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, summer squash and early maturing tomatoes like Early Girl, Stupice, San Francisco Fog, Isis Candy as well as other cherry tomatoes. Corn and peppers will be lankier and bear later and only modesty in partial shade.

Root crops and leafy plants can tolerate more shade than fruiting crops. Beets, carrots, potatoes, celery and turnip will grow quite happily in partial shade. So will shallots and bunching onions, cilantro, garlic, chives, kale, leeks, parsley, oregano, cilantro and thyme. Leafy plants can tolerate partial to light shade because their leaves grow larger to absorb the sunlight the plants need. In very light shade areas concentrate on leafy green like Swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, arugula, radishes and tarragon.

Shade can be decidedly helpful to some crops. Leafy greens will be more tender and succulent, without the bitterness they tend to acquire when conditions are too hot. A combination of a bit of afternoon shade and an abundance of moisture will help cut-and-come-again crops like broccoli, lettuce, cabbage and celery stay in good condition longer in hot weather.

I’ve always wanted to enjoy carrots from my own garden. From Renee’s Garden Seeds, I think I”ll try growing some Babette French Baby Carrots. They germinate quickly and grow quickly. I plan to harvest while they’re still small- 3-4 inches long. I eat a lot of spinach so I’m going to grow Little Hero, Container Baby Leaf Spinach. The catalog says it has a mild, nutty flavor, is fast growing and highly ornamental in containers. And I might try my hand at an heirloom tomato for containers like Tasmanian Chocolate. They sound delicious and would be worth fighting the squirrels for.

Whatever plants you grow in your shady garden, be sure not to crowd them. Plants tend to sprawl there and if placed too close together they will compete for available light. Place your vegetables plants wherever they will get the most light even if it means putting different crops in separate places. A small harvest is still better than no harvest at all. Your vegetables may take a bit longer to mature without full sun so be patient.

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